Family Portrait
by Chuisneoir
Summary: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? What do you do when life throws a twist your way you never expected? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.
1. Meet the Cullens

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_:What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: Welcome! After reading FanFictions for quite some time now I decided to write my own one. So, this is a first attempt. I'm not really sure about the rating so to be on the safe side I put it up as a M rating but it maybe could also be a T story, I don't know.  
This will be only a short fic, ten chapters at the most.  
But now, enough of my rambling, enjoy reading!

* * *

Letting my head fall back on the headrest of my seat I closed my eyes, thinking back to the two weeks I spent away from my family. I had to attend a short book tour for my newest publication, signings, interviews and conventions. Which let Edward to stay home alone, in charge of the children.  
I had met Edward in my junior year of college, when he had just started medical school. It was love at first sight and we were together ever since.

I wanted to surprise my family, coming back a day earlier than planned so I wasn't expecting anyone to pick me up from the airport.  
Grabbing my luggage off the conveyer I headed to find a cab to bring me home.

Stepping out of the airport I inhaled the clear scent of the Seattle night, letting the slight drizzle moisten my face. I had missed my family and was glad to be back home.

I hailed a cab, telling the driver my address. Driving through the night I thought about how Edward handled our four children. I normally wouldn't spent two weeks away from them but I had no other choice. This schedule was set in stone and couldn't be changed for a later date.

When the cab drove into our driveway I could see that the cars of my two eldest children were missing. Only Edward's blue Maybach sat in the driveway.  
There was no light on in any of the rooms and I wondered if anybody was still awake. Glancing at my watch I saw that it was just past 12:30 in the morning.  
After paying the driver and grabbing my all my bags I made it to the front door. Unlocking it and trying to be as quiet as possible so that I didn't wake anybody I made it inside. Leaving my suitcase in the foyer, I would take care of it in the morning, I only took my carry-on upstairs, noticing for the first time just how quiet my house was. Normally, with four teenagers running around it was a lot louder even at such late timed of the day.

I silently opened the door to our bedroom, glancing inside I could see Edward's head shooting up from his pillow.  
He looked at me sleepily "Bella?"  
"Hey sweetheart." Letting my bag fall on the floor near the door I made it to the bed, pressing my lips to his. God, how I had missed him. Even the countless calls didn't help much in wanting to be back in his arms as soon as possible.

After a long kiss he looked at me with his trademark grin on his lips.  
"You're home early."  
"I couldn't take being away from you for one more day." I made my way back to the bag I had abandoned earlier but was interrupted by my sweet husband.  
"You look tired. Leave everything for the morning and come join me." He lifted the duvet in an inviting gesture.

Stripping out of my clothes, leaving my in only my bra and panties, I snuggled into Edward's side. He promptly started to brush his hand over my hair.

"It's quiet." I noticed this the first step into the house.  
"Yes, it is. Tony and Danielle are out with friends, partying and Tara is staying at a friends house. Aaron is home but I haven't seen him since dinner."

Lately Aaron barricaded himself in his room even more regularly. I didn't know what I could do to counteract his behavior. I tried speaking with him but every time I tried that he either ignored my advances, left the room or changed the topic.

"Why are our teenaged children out partying at this time of the night?" I glanced at the alarm clock on Edward's nightstand only to see that it was nearing one am.

Edward throw a sheepish glance my way. "Because they are young, it's the weekend and there is no school tomorrow?" His answer sounded more like a question than anything else.

I didn't like the idea of my 17 years old son and my one year younger daughter being out in the city without supervision that late.

"They shouldn't be out that late. They are too young. You're allowing them way too much."  
"Relax, angel, we were young too once, remember? Just thing back on what we did when we were their age."

I looked him in the eyes, wanting to confirm if he was serious.  
"That's what scares me." I answered him with a smirk.

Edward place a last kiss on my hair before we both drifted off to sleep.

I was abruptly woken by the doorbell. Begrudgingly I opened my eyes and glanced at Edward. He was still snoring softly which let me to think that I was only dreaming.

The doorbell rang again which woke me ultimately. Glancing at the alarm told me it was 3:55 in the morning.  
Rolling over onto my side I softly shook Edward's shoulder. "Baby, wake up."  
He raised his head from the pillow to look me in the eyes. "What's up?" He looked sleepy.  
"There's someone at the door, Edward. He already rang twice."  
"Then this someone should come back in the morning. It's the middle of the night for Christ's sake." He closed his eyes again and was back to snoring.

When the doorbell rang a third time I lightly punched Edward's shoulder.

"What?" he asked frustrated.  
"Go look who's at the door," I commanded him. I couldn't believe that I had to nearly jostle him off the bed.

Reluctantly Edward got up from the bed and made his way downstairs. I quickly slipped on my bathrobe and followed him.

Stopping mid-stairs I could see a police officer and a provocatively dressed young woman standing on the porch. The woman's skirt wasn't nearly long enough to cover her behind, more resembling a belt than anything else, and her top didn't leave much for imagination.

"Danielle!" I shrieked, which in turn woke up Edward completely.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen?" the officer addressed us both. Edward nodded in confirmation.  
"I'm sorry to interrupt your night. We found this young lay in front of Trinity Nightclub, drunk. As she isn't of legal age ..." The officer tried to explain.

One look at the cruiser told me that Rachel and Samira were sitting in the back of the car with their heads hanging low. But what was really shocking was seeing my niece Alexis, who wasn't even 15 for long sitting between the other two girls.

"Thanks for bringing her here officer."  
After assuring that we would take our parental obligations seriously we closed the front door.  
"I'm off to bed," she slurred while trying to get out of my tight grip.  
"Not so fast young lady!"

I knew that my oldest children as well as nieces and nephews gained access to clubs in the city, but never has any of them come home drunk or was brought home by the police. And now that was really pissing me off.

"What were you thinking? You are 16 years old, Danielle! It's bad enough that you get into such establishments but that they sell alcohol to you, too! Since when do you actually drink alcohol? You've got to be kidding me!" I screamed at her. I was furious now, couldn't believe that one of my children would actually act that way.

Edward was standing in front of the closed door, taking in me screaming at our daughter with a pained expression on his face.

He placed one of his hands on my shoulder. "Let her got to bed, she's drunk. She probably won't remember this conversation in the morning."

Edward was a real softy when it came to our children. In his eyes they could never do wrong. They all had him wrapped around their little fingers and especially Dani was his princess.

Danielle was already up the stairs when I interrupted her.  
"Where is Tony?"  
She didn't even look back when answering me. "How should I know? He took off hours ago."

Irate and anxious about my son I stormed off to the kitchen boiling some water for tea. I was followed by my husband while he was trying to get a hold of our eldest son. I could faintly hear his voice mail picking up and clearer now Edward's huffy message for him.  
"Where are you going?" I was interrupted by Edward. Still fuming I took my cup of tea and left the kitchen.  
"I am going to the family room, waiting for _your_ son."  
"So now he is my son?" he asked with a small smile on his lips. I could hear him following me, sitting down on the couch next to me and cuddling into my side.

From upstairs we could hear the vomiting sounds from the girls bathroom. "I really hope she feels bad tomorrow," I ranted. Looking back at Edward, he was asleep again. I swear, this guy could sleep anywhere. I kissed his head and waited for our son to come home.

I woke from my nap on the couch at seven am. Hearing a car coming to a halt in our driveway I made my way to the front door, investigating. Glancing out of the foyer window I could see Tony getting out of a red convertible. He bid the considerably older, scantily-clad woman goodbye with a long kiss and made his way to the front door, while the convertible took off from the driveway again.  
Opening the door, I greeted my son with a glare.  
"Where have you been? And who was that?"  
"Good morning mom." Before heading up the stairs he left an innocent peck on my cheek. I could faintly smell alcohol on his breath mixed with the minty smell of chewing gum. Tony continued his way into his room, locking his door for some privacy.

I couldn't believe my son went out with an older woman. Not just a girl one or maybe even two years older than him, that I would understand. But the woman who brought him home was at least in her mid twenties.

I could hear Edward slouching into the foyer.  
"Who was that?"

I decided not to tell Edward about our son's escort, in the end he would be proud of him.

After taking a deep breath and without gracing my husband with an answer I went back into our bedroom. Letting myself fall back onto the mattress and enveloping into the duvet I stared at the ceiling.

"That's all just a bad joke. I'm just imaging things," I said to myself while closing my eyes.  
When I wake up in a moment non of this has ever happened, I thought before drifting back to sleep.

When I woke up again the alarm clock told me it was shortly after ten am. Rolling on my back, I thought back to the previous night. That wasn't a nightmare I dreamed, last night was real and now I had to deal with the consequences.

Placing my hand on my forehead, shielding my eyes from the soft light, I could feel the beginning of a light headache.

I stood up with a sigh and made my way into the en suite bathroom.

I didn't imaging when I made the plan to come back early that I would walk right into hell. I selfishly thought it would have been better to stay away for another day and have Edward deal with the children. For a brief moment I thought about not stepping out of the bedroom at all today, that would be as close as I could still get to not coming home.

On my way down the stairs I ran into Edward in the foyer.  
"Where have you been?" I asked him, maybe a bit too reproachful.  
"I went to pick up Tara."  
"Okay, and where is she?" I tried to steal a glance at the still opened front door, trying to find my daughter but Edward's frame stood in the way.  
"She's coming. She just wanted to check on her tomatoes." A few month ago Tara started to grow her own vegetables in our garden which no one was allowed to touch.  
Edward handed me a bag with croissants and a big cup of coffee. "I brought some breakfast," he announced.  
Taking the offered goodies I took off to the kitchen, Edward following me.

This was going to be a tough day and it was only 10:30 now.

I flopped down on one of the chairs at the kitchen table and absentmindedly nibbled on one of the croissants.  
The door to the deck was being opened and I was greeted with a cheery "Top of the morning, Mom!" by my daughter. I huffed in acknowledgment, fruitlessly searching for the great things about this morning.  
Absentmindedly I let my gaze wander up and down her body before softly shaking my head.

With her nearly 15 years she looked a lot like her dad. Out of all our children, Tara was the one resembling Edward the most.  
Taking in her clothes I could only shake my head again.  
When I was her age there were no holes in my jeans and my sweaters were maybe a bit unraveled at the seams but nothing like Tara's. She wore old, washed out corduroys combined with a dirty, brown wool sweater featuring a smiling sunflower face on the front.  
With shock I took in her hair. The hair that only two weeks ago was long and hanging down her shoulders was now matted into dreadlocks that were bound into a ponytail with a colorful scarf.  
I wrinkled my nose in horror, not believing that Edward would ever allow something like that. But before I could say anything, Tara, with a cup of freshly brewed tea in her hand, disappeared into her room.

Edward came at me from behind, startling me slightly. He placed a soft kiss on my neck whispering into my ear. "It's only hair, darling. Don't worry. Cut it and it'll grow again."

With a rejecting flip of my hand I signaled him that I really wasn't in the mood to discuss my daughter's hair right now, if ever.

Right then Aaron entered the kitchen and, without a word of greeting to any of us, planted himself at the kitchen table, grabbed the cornflakes box, took some out with his hand and threw them into a bowl before drowning them with milk.

Disgusted I commented his behavior with a "Well, isn't that just yummy." before taking a big mouthful of my coffee.

Edward sat in the seat opposite mine, took on of the croissants for himself and devoured it with pleasure.  
"So, did you plan anything special for later today?" With Edward's job at the hospital and the kids busy schedules at school it was very rare that everybody was home at the same time. As a family we tried to utilize this time to the max, finding something fun to do each time. But lately the children would mostly stay clear from family activities.  
"I thought we could go visit your parents, leave the kids with them and take your father's yacht out for a bit of alone time..."  
I couldn't even finish my thought before I was rudely interrupted by Aaron.  
"Eew! That's so disgusting. You aren't alone if you haven't noticed!"  
I had to grin at his comment before throwing a seductive look Edward's way.  
"Then we make love to each other the entire afternoon while we are exposed to the rough sea."  
Aaron slammed his spoon onto the table while making gagging noises and standing up from the table to leave the room.  
"Then we can make another baby who gets Aaron's room because he is going to be send to military school where they teach him some manners." I yelled the last part after my son who already was on his way back to his room.  
Edward laughed at the scene but shut up quickly after to threw a glare his way.  
"No, seriously. We have to talk to Danielle and Anthony. It can't go on like this, partying is one thing but getting drunk and being brought home by the police is an entirely different matter."  
I refrained from telling Edward about the woman in the convertible. Wanting to avoid that my husband would be proud of Tony's behavior in the end.  
He just nodded in agreement.

I was standing in front of the stove cooking dinner. Maybe it would be possible to at least have a family dinner on this most chaotic day.  
I hadn't seen either Dani or Tony at all after I woke up this morning. They were probably both sleeping in their rooms, recovering from a night of partying. Aaron was also in his room, right after he left the kitchen table this morning he went back to his room and I haven't seen him since. Edward was in his office, taking care of some paperwork he had to bring home this week in order to be there for the kids. Only Tara was not barricaded into some dark hole and sat at the kitchen table reading a book called '_Eating Animals_'.  
"Tara, could you please go wake up your sister, dinner is nearly ready."  
I was startled by her screaming her sister's name. "DANIELLE!"  
"Thank you very much. I could have done that myself. Could you go upstairs to make sure that she really gets out of her bed. And tell your brothers to come down, too."  
"Jeez, why does it always have to be me?" she complained. I didn't let her get far with this kind of attitude and threw a look her way.  
"Go!"  
I could hear Tara making a lot of noise as she stormed up the stairs, ripping the door to Danielle's room open.  
Taking my focus back on the meal I was preparing I checked the meatloaf in the oven and stirred the amazing carrots.  
I was interrupted by my daughter's scream again.  
"MOM! DANI DOESN'T WANT TO GET UP!"  
I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath to compose myself.  
Turning off stove and oven I made my way down to the ground floor where Edward's study was located.  
Tapping at the door of Edward's study I told him to come upstairs for dinner.

After the birth of the twins we had some remodeling to do. First only relocating Edward's study and turning it into a nursery but as soon as Aaron and Tara were old enough we wanted to get each of them their own room, so we had to remodel the guest room too. Now Edward's study could be found on the ground floor. For this we had to get rid of our gym but as it was hardly used by any of us any longer, this wasn't a hard decision to make. With the help of Esme and Alice the plans were put into action nearly as soon as everything was planned. Alice even flew out from Dallas for a week, overlooking the remodeling and leaving her 18 month old girls alone with Jasper.

Back in the kitchen I set the table. Our dining room was hardly used, only when there was a bigger amount of people to be fed, when we had guest or on holidays.  
I sat down at the table and was soon joined by Edward. Together we waited for our children to show up in silence.

We could hear one of them storming down the stairs. Shortly after, Tara flopped in the seat next to me and glanced at the food.  
"You don't really think I'm going to ear this, right?" she asked with an accusing voice.  
"But I thought you liked meatloaf."  
"Mom! Don't you know anything about me? I'm vegetarian since two years."  
Had I really not noticed what was going on in her life?  
"Well, that shows how long this family hasn't sat together at the table and had dinner."  
The angry mood in the kitchen only increased when Dani, still in her nightshirt, entered the kitchen and took a seat next to her dad, trying to hide behind his big torso.  
"You could have at least dressed in something a bit more appropriate." I chastised her.  
"Not so loud!" Danielle rubbed her forehead.  
I could only imaging the headache my daughter was suffering from. The last time I woke up with a alcohol induced killer headache was the day of Rosalie's bachelorette party.  
Taking pity on her I stood up to get her some water and Aspirin, placing both in front of her.  
"Don't think we won't talk about what happened last night, madame!"

"Wait! What did she do now?" In a good mood Tony entered the kitchen, interestingly watching the confrontation between his sister and me.  
I turned in his direction, but because he grew so much in the last years instead of being at eye level with my son I was facing his chest.  
"Maybe we should talk about what you did last night?" I took a step back to look into the eyes of my son.  
"Me? I was just hanging out with some friends. All was harmless." he tried to diffuse the situation.  
"And who was the woman in the car this morning?"  
That question got Edward interested.  
"Just a friend. Really mom, nothing special."  
With a grin like the Cheshire Cat and a raised eyebrow he took a seat next to Tara.

Meanwhile Aaron came down the stairs too and silently sat at Danielle's site, leaving his gaze at the plate in front of him.

Now that all out kids were sitting at the table I could start serving dinner, which was eaten in complete silence. All of us lost their own thoughts.

After everybody finished dinner I collected the dishes to put them in the sink. Turning back to the table to appoint tasks that had to be done after dinner to my children, I found they already left the room again. Only Edward was still there, with a sad smile for me.

I went back to the table, doing the stuff myself. Wanting to put the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher I was interrupted by Edward who pulled me on his lap.  
"Calm down." he soothingly caressed my back and I placed my arms around his neck, looking deep into his emerald eyes.  
"Edward." I sighed while he place small kisses all along my neck.  
"How can I calm down when my house is ruled by a herd of spoiled, pubescent teens? They don't have any respect left!"  
Edward swayed his head, surly thinking about my words. His chewing on his bottom lip was a sure giveaway.  
"And? How do you think you should counteract this?" he looked at me questioningly.

I couldn't believe my ears! Was he serious? Was he really thinking he would get away that easily? Let Bella cope with the situation? I could only cross my eyes at his words.  
"Why me? Why do I always have to be the bad parent? Why can't you say something? What's wrong if the children get mad at you for once?" I was silenced by Edward putting his index finger on my lips.  
"A suggestion. We take a walk. You can get rid of your mood and I think about some punishment for the children. Agreed?"  
I could just nod my head and stand up.

We walked hand in hand neither one of us saying a word. I could feel Edward's thump lovingly caressing the back of my hand.

Letting my mind wander I tried to think back to the one moment when my children slipped through my fingers but I couldn't find it. Their quirks crept in slowly with time, so that nobody could notice them right away.  
Just yesterday they were my sweet, cute, polite angels and now they were on their best way to grow up. And each of them had different goals but all tired to reach theirs with the same ambition, which they sure inherited from their father.  
Anthony would start his last year of high school next month and then wanted to follow his cousin Ethan to Berkeley for college, to study law, not continuing the family tradition and study medicine like his father and grandfather. A lot of times, it seemed to me, the only thing he really took serious was his sports and his girlfriend. He was the quarterback for his football team and enjoyed the popularity which came with such a role a little too much.  
Danielle, just turned 16 and at the moment it seemed that her main reason for living was so that she could party with her cousins and friends all the time. I didn't really like this kind of lifestyle but felt that as long as Dani's grades didn't suffer I could turn a blind eye to her partying.  
14 year old Tara was quite the opposite of her older siblings. She wasn't into the obviously popular folk. Her heart belonged to the animals. And I highly believed that she would turn into a vet someday.  
Aaron was acting differently lately. Completely isolating himself from us. I didn't know whether he was at least talking to his brother or one of his sisters but I slowly started to get really worried about his behavior. No one of his siblings had ever acted this way.

Back home Edward called in a family conference. This amused me to no end because there never has been such a thing as a 'family conference' in this household before. But sure enough all four of our kids were sitting on the family room couches mere minutes later. I had to say, I was impressed.

After a short moment in which Edward comped through his hair relentlessly he started to talk. "It seems to me that lately the way your lives are going seems a bit off way. I know..."

Did he really know what he was going to say next?

"... you are teenagers and want to go partying." He let is gaze wander to Tony and Dani. "But you are minors. You have no business going to nightclubs and especially not drinking there. So Danielle … your behavior last night has to be punished. You are grounded for two weeks. Which means no parties and no hanging out with friends either. Me or your mother will take you to school and pick you back up."

I was positively shocked by the serve way Edward was punishing his daughter. And also Dani's reaction was predictable.

She listened to her punishment and looked at her father with teary eyes.  
"But Dad!" she was sobbing loudly. "You can't do this to me."

Bella wasn't the least bit captivated by her daughter's acting talent. She was more interested on Edward's reaction. Would he stand by his words or would his daughter's tears break him down. His expression changed to one of sympathy but after taking a deep breath he stood firm.

"Yes, I can. Furthermore you are going to give me both your cell and credit card for the time, getting it back in two weeks!"

That caught me by surprise. I didn't think Edward could be this consequent with his princess.  
Dani's mouth was hanging open. Then she stood up and threw an angry stare at me.

"I HATE YOU!" sobbing once again she went up to her room.

I wasn't fazed by Danielle's reaction but the sad look in Edward's eyes showed just how upset he was of his daughter's behavior.  
I honestly had been waiting for this sentence. Normally I would get to hear it at least daily.  
Edward looked back Dani's way one last time before shaking his head and turning to his three remaining children.

"Why are you looking like that? Are we getting grounded now too just because she was drunk?" Tara grumbled from her seat between her brothers.

"No, you aren't grounded. Nevertheless I want you all to act with a bit more respect, especially towards your mother. Also I ask you to take this seriously otherwise I will take your cells and credit cards away too."

With this he dismissed his children and got out of the room himself, probably to digest his oldest daughter's behavior.

This was not how I had imagined this day. A little sad I crept under the duvet, laying in bed alone. I thought back to the sad look in Edward's eyes when Dani started to scream at me. That was concerning me the most.

* * *

That's it for now. So, did you like it?


	2. Monday Madness

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: I want to thank everybody who favorited my story or put it on alert or reviewd it. It's really nice to see some kind of feedback.  
But now, enough of my rambling, enjoy reading!

* * *

On Monday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying my first cup of coffee. Glancing out the window I let the faint rays of sunlight warm my face.  
From upstairs I could hear the shower in the boys' bath. Glad that at least my sons would get up without being summoned first. When I could hear the shower being turned off and on again I went upstairs to wake the girls.

First I went to Tara's room and looked at her sleeping form. She was laying on her stomach, her face pressed down into the pillow and she was still sleeping deeply. In the background her alarm clock was ringing furiously but couldn't wake Tara from her slumber. I had to smile and squatted down in front of her bed.

"Wake up sleepyhead!" I softly whispered into her ear but didn't get a reaction out of her.

"Wake up!" My voice got louder now but it was fruitless. Tara was out dead.

"Wake up!" I told her one last time before I took her comforter off her back.

Sleepily Tara squinted my way. "There's no reason to get loud. I heard you the first time."

"And why didn't you react then?" Crossing my eyes I stood up to let some air and light into the room. Glancing back at Tara, to make sure she didn't drift back to sleep, I left her room and went to wake Dani.

Standing in front of Danielle's door gulp. The two of us were fighting more and more theses days. Constantly she was accusing me of something or another and the screaming matches that took place between us were starting to affect me. I didn't want to argue with her but even less so did I want to accept the way she was behaving lately.

With a sigh I opened the door and stepped in. The room that once belonged to a little princess was now the one of a grown woman. Realizing that I never really took the time to look at my daughter's room I let my gaze wander landing on Dani who was, just like Tara, still fast asleep.

Wandering around the room I took in everything. In the middle of the room stood her daughter's big bed in which she was sleeping. The satin linen of her comforter were of a pale rose. On her desk under the window stood a white laptop and some loose paper. The wall at the headboard of Dani's bed was decorated with pictures. I stepped closer to take a better look. Most of the pictures showed Dani and her friends. Some seemed to be taken at parties, others at some lake. On a couple of pictures I recognized Rachel and Samira, the other teenagers were stranger to me. I turned around to look at her closet. The door was opened and I could see her neatly folded shirts, sorted by color. Danielle was real tidy and structured, something I wasn't and admired.

I really started to question what led to the verbal lapses last night.

I went to open her windows to let the sunlight flood the room. I could hear Dani's muted groan.

"Is it morning already?"

"Yes my darling! It's a fair and beautiful morning and it's going to bring you a lot of fun at school..!"

Danielle's arm was resting on her eyes, letting them get accustomed with the change in light.

Back downstairs in the kitchen Tony was already sitting at the table, enjoining his morning coffee. He wore a gray button down with the top few buttons unbuttoned. His black jeans was hanging low on his hips.

"Good morning, Mom!"

"Good morning."

I sank in the seat next to my son and button up his shirt. First it seemed as if he wanted to dismiss me but then let me do my work. I looked up at him.

"And? Anything special planned for today?"

Tony took a slice of toast and put jam on it. "I'm going to meet up with some friends after school."

I had to raise an eyebrow at that, thinking of the nature of said friends.

I just wanted add my two cents when I was interrupted by loud screaming from upstairs.

Dani was screaming at the closed bathroom door.

"NOW OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! DO YOU REALLY NEED THAT MUCH TIME TO LOOK LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN WATER BEFORE?"

I did want to say something but forgot all about it over Danielle's screaming.

"Don't be home too late."

I let my son be and went to get anther coffee.

"Morning." Bad tempered like it was usual for her in the morning Tara walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, darling."

Without uttering another word Tara flopped down on her chair an helped herself to a glass of orange juice.

"Where's Aaron?" Normally he would be the one to come down the stairs after Tony.

"I'm here alright!" I could hear his voice from the foyer before he came sneaking into the kitchen.

I was looking at him expectantly for a moment. "Good … morning …?"

I nodded and had to smile, "Good morning to you too."

I could hear the creaking of the front door. Edward was back from his morning jog and in a way better mood than he was last night. "Morning, baby." He sneaked around my back and placed a kiss on my cheeks.

"If you want I could bring the kids to school today," I offered.

Normally her kids would ride to school with friends but since Edward initiated that Dani would be brought to and from school someone had to drive now. Edward nodded.

"Hey! Why do we have to go? We didn't do anything!" Tony was loudly protesting.

"If I'm going to drive to school, I will take all of you, simple as that," interrupted Edward the tirade of our son which impressed me I had to say. I had never experienced Edward being that strict before and wondered for how long he would be true to his words.

I went to get him his own cup of coffee.

"Where's Dani?" Edward was looking around the room, searching for his oldest daughter.

"She's still in the bathroom, getting skanky." Tara mumbled the last part but we could hear her clearly nonetheless.

"Tara!" I was shocked by her words.

Shaking his head Edward got up from the table to get showered upstairs.

Tony, Aaron and Tara stood up from the table and made their way to the family car.

"Dani!" I yelled upstairs hoping that she would hurry a bit.

"WHAT?" I was screamed at by my daughter once again. She was coming down the stairs, dressed in a navy nearly there miniskirt and a black Mary Jane pumps. Her blouse was unbuttoned way more than it was appropriate, inviting even more looks. Her long brown hair was waving behind her and she had a jacket thrown over her shoulder.

I was amused by her way of rebellion. Why should I get worked up about this? They had a dress code at school and her teachers would tell her off. "Are these my shoes?" I asked her but wasn't granted an answer as Dani stalked out the door to the car.

Tony was riding shotgun; Tara, Aaron and Dani sitting in the backseat. I got in the car and started the motor. Glancing at my children I could see Tony being busy unbuttoning the first few ones on his button down whereas Dani was looking in the mirror which was hidden in the head-rest, tracing her lips with some lipstick. Tara was angrily looking at her sister.

"Did you know that for the production of your lipstick several animals had to die for testing purposes?"

Dani didn't answer and the rest of the drive was spent in silence.

The car wasn't even in standstill and my kids were already leaving it.

I could see Tony heading in the direction of a group of boys, sitting on a wall in front of the school, both Danielle and Tara disappearing into the building and Aaron stood, seemingly lost, near the entrance of the school before making a beeline to some guy, around the corner of the building.

Back home I tried to clear some of the chaos that was provided by a ton of memos, all filled with different dates, appointments and deadlines. Laying open in front of me was the families' organizer.

"Well, what are you doing here?" came the amused voice of Edward.

"I'm trying to reorganize this family. Can you give me your PDA please?"

Edward sat down next to me and handed his PDA to me.

"What does 'A&J – TPD' stand for?" Sometimes it was really hard to decrypt Edward's chicken scratch.

He had to laugh at that. "That means that we are going to meet up with Alice and Jasper today. They are here for the week and Alice wanted to try this restaurant." He enveloped me with his arms.

"Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know they were coming to Seattle."

"I forgot?"

"But I can't. We can't both go when Dani is grounded. That's impossible."

"Umm, then I should stay home. Ultimately it was me who grounded her, so you should go." He was looking kind of disappointed.

"No, you go. I'm meeting Rose and Leah soon and you stay here and wait for the kids."

"Well okay."

Edward pressed my body even more to his and moved to kiss me. But before his lips touched mine he was talking again. "Say, for how long have Dani and you been fighting?"

Reluctantly I opened my eyes, which I had closed to enjoy Edward's tenderness, again.

"I can't really say. She's reached the peak of puberty now … I think her mind is doing a 180 right now and she doesn't know how to act. I try to ignore it most of the times but it's gotten worse since the summer holiday."

"And what can we do to counteract it?"

I wish I'd know. So I couldn't do anything else than to shrug my shoulders. "You can't really do something about it other than hope it will pass soon."

Finally he kissed me and I closed my eyes again to relish on his lips on mine.

When he pulled back he watched me with a amused look in his eyes, "Why did you want to have children again?"

"I? YOU wanted to reproduce and again and again." We both started to first laugh followed by some more kissing.

"The reason probably was because you got even more beautiful with every child."

I was early. Disbelievingly I checked my watch again. I couldn't remember the last time I was early for something. Normally I would rush to my dates. This let me smile. Bella, you're getting old.

I sat down in one of the big wicker chairs and ordered a coffee for myself. With pleasure I downed a mouthful of the hot drink and continuously letting my gaze wander to the door.

45 minutes later I was still waiting. Wow, that was a strange feeling, sitting here alone and waiting. Finally I could understand Rose, who always ranted at me when I was running late again. I peeked once again at my watch. It was now ten thirty and we wanted to meet at ten...

Puzzled I looked for my cell and called Rose's number. She wasn't picking up and at the same time as the voice mail picked up Rose came storming through the door.

"Hi! I'm sorry I'm late but all hell broke loose at home." Rose seemed hounded and stressed as she plopped in the seat next to me. I was curious as to what she would tell me now. Taking another gulp of my coffee I listened to Rose.

"Ryan wants to move out."

"What? Why?"

"Well, you probably know that Alexis was brought home by the police yesterday morning."

"Yeah, but what has Ryan to do with it?" I was looking at her questioningly, not getting where this talk may lead.

"Emmett went ballistic on him. Made him responsible for Alexis being drunk. I know it's not how it was but you know Emmett." Yes, I knew Emmett. Ever since Alexis was diagnosed with anemia and she had to take drugs daily, Emmett wanted to protect her in everything she did. In his eyes Alexis couldn't do wrong. Men … I had to roll my eyes at that.

"Well and now Ryan is pissed and wants to move out. As if that isn't enough he wants to quit high school. And that's when Emmett really went postal...," shaking her head Rose leaned back in her chair and ordered a tea.

"Where's Leah?"

"No idea."

"And? How did you punish Danielle?"

"Me? I didn't do anything. I let Edward punish his little spoiled princess."

Rose was looking at me as if she wasn't buying a word I was saying. "And? What did he do? Buy her some sucker so that she doesn't do it again?" Sarcasm was written all over her question and I couldn't hold back the laugh.

"No, really, he grounded her for two weeks and she had to give her cell and credit card back."

"You're joking."

"Nope."

"I can't believe this."

"No! He really, truly did it!"

Rose took the her tea from the waitress and smiled amused. "Do you know whether Leah is still coming?"

"I can call her if you want." Impatiently I was typing on the buttons but even after waiting for some time Leah didn't pick up.

We sat at the cafe for quite some time, talking. Trying to find the positive with all the problems we had with our kids. And then we went shopping copiously.

"I don't know what to do anymore!"

I was sitting on the couch with my Aunt Sue and spilled my guts out to her.

Edward had made arrangements for her acting as babysitter so that both of us could go to dinner with Jasper and Alice.

Actually, Sue was my stepmother. My dad, Charlie, married her shortly after her husband, Harry one of my dad's closest friends, died. But they have always been close. Sue and Harry helped my dad when my Mom took me away and every summer when I would come visit him I would play with Leah and Seth, their children. She always was and will be my Aunt Sue. After moving back in with my Dad permanently me and Leah quickly became best friends. Finally me moving out to college left enough room for Sue and Seth to finally move in with my dad. At that time Leah was already living with her fiance. When my dad retired he and Sue moved to the big city to be closer the the grandkids.

"They do everything they want. They have no interest in what I say ..."

Sue listened to me closely, with smiling eyes. "They are way too disrespectful and rebellious?"

"Exactly!" Taking a sip of my tea I waited a moment to continue. "My children have EVERYTHING! And I mean really EVERYTHING and they don't know how lucky they are. My children are spoiled." This insight let me take a deep breath. Sue was giggling.

"Yes, the probably are, but let me tell you a story, a story about a little spoiled brat ..." I moved closer to her to better listen to the story she was about to tell me. "This little brat always did what she wanted. All the good advice from her aunt was dismissed. She had a mind of her own and was quite stubborn. Always wanting to have her way, no matter the consequences. She cost her poor aunt a lot of nerves and even more gray hair." Sue was grinning like a Cheshire cat and I knew exactly who she was talking about. "Well, and today her aunt with the gray hair is amused because the little spoiled brat gets a taste of her own medicine."

"So you think my children are just like me?"

Sue nodded. "You still are. You still want to always have your way."

I had to agree to that. "And? Do you have some advice for me?"

Sue let her body lean back, "I don't think there is a panacea for pubescent children but the more you forbid them the harder they will fight against you and try to get their way.

"Mom?" Tara came down the stairs and into the family room. "Aunty Sue! Hello! What are you doing here?" She squeezed in between the two of us. Lenient Sue didn't comment on Tara's new hairstyle.

"Babysitting!"

Puzzled Tara raised an eye brow and looked my way. "Can I got to Jen after school tomorrow? I'd stay at her house and would go to school from there."

Honestly, I wasn't impressed by Tara's suggestion but the words Sue spoke to me earlier were still at the back of my mind. "Yes, sure," I allowed her resistant.

"Can we go?" Edward came in to the room from the kitchen, glancing at the big clock.

"Sure."

One last glace at Sue I made sure that she knew the action. "Tara, Dani and Aaron are all upstairs. Tony is still out but he should be back at nine thirty. That's at least what he promised. Dani probably won't come down tonight every thing else … if there's something important just call one of us."

Sue rolled her eyes at me. "Don't act like this is the first time I'm doing that for you." She pushed Edward and me in the direction of the front door. "Have fun!"

Begrudgingly I left the house. Recently she didn't enjoy being with her children and Sue was getting on a bit as well.

"Hey, dreamer!"Edward brought me back to reality. He opened the car door for me so I could get in. "Everything all right?"

I nodded my head absentmindedly. Closing the door, Edward got in the driver's seat.

"Don't worry too much. Sue knows what she is doing. Let's enjoy the evening."

Glancing at the house one last time, I let myself be consumed with anticipation of meeting Alice and Jasper again. "You are probably right. Let's go have some fun." With that he took off our drive way.

The last time we had seen Alice and Jasper was when we visited them in Dallas earlier this summer. But we generally didn't see them that often, mainly for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and maybe one other time of the year.

Arriving at the restaurant the two Whitlocks were already waiting for us.

The restaurant Alice had picked was magnificent. The food was delicious and the atmosphere very welcoming.

We talked a lot and had an overall great time.

I savored the flavor of my cocktail as well was the feeling of Edward's hand brushing up my thigh, shielded by the table. I had to suck in a breath in order to keep a straight face. It was long ago that we gave in to such teasingly caresses. I leaned back in my seat, acting like I was yawning while moving my arms backwards and grazing Edward's crotch seemingly accidental. At the contact he had to close his eyes.

"I think I'm tired."

I took a glance at my watch. "It _is_ past midnight."

"Really?" As if he didn't believe me he had to check for himself. "Really. Well maybe we should head back home."

He stood up and looked at Alice and Jasper, who had been watching our little show with smiles on their faces. I think they knew exactly what was going on between Edward and me but refrained from commenting our behavior. So they stood up too and we bid them a good night.

Not even in the car for one minute Edward couldn't keep his hands off me. Continuously he pushed up my skirt to massage my inner thighs. He could feel the goosebumps building on my skin. Mesmerized I looked ahead, trying to play with him. In between giggling like a little schoolgirl.

At home we had to pull ourselves together to say goodbye to Sue.

"Tony is in his bed. He was home at exactly nine thirty." She told us while getting into her jacket.

"Thanks for babysitting." I kissed her on the cheek. "Always!" and with that she was out the door.

After closing the door behind her I turned back around only to feel Edward crash his lips hungrily against my own. I knew we had to make it to our bedroom before we could take this any further so I grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs. He was willingly following me.

For one moment I stood still in his embrace. Just feeling his closeness, letting me be envelope in his unique Edward scent and savoring his warmth.  
Not taking it any longer both of us ripped off each others clothes.  
Edward stumbled while trying to get his shoes off, landing with his back on the bed. This gave me the perfect opportunity to come upon him. He closed his eyes while I fondled with his left nipple.  
I let go of his nipple abruptly and sat back up. Edward opened his eyes and looked at me with a questioningly look in his eyes.

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" His look becoming even more puzzled.

I turned my head in the direction I had heard the noise coming from. "There, again!"

"Yeah, I heard it. Sounded like someone was laughing." It seemed that he couldn't relate that laugh to either of their daughters, too.

I sat up from the bed dressed in my bathrobe and went down the hall. Now I could clearly hear the sound and it was coming from Tony's room.  
I could imaging what was happening behind my son's closed door but some motherly force drove me to actually open it.

"ANTHONY!"

Before I was able to change my mind I had to watch the woman from Saturday night cower above my son, naked.

"Mom!" Angry glares were thrown around the room and the woman was looking down at Tony in an amused way.

"You are living with your parents?"

"Of cause he is living with his parents! He is 17!" I was appalled by what I had to watch and even more by the fact that Tony actually took this woman into our house. I couldn't look away from what was happening on my son's bed.

"Dear god, could you please get something on!" Finally I was able to look away and turning around only to look into my husband's face seeing him smirking like an idiot.

"This is ..." I wasn't able to find any words for this situation.

Without uttering another word I went back to the bedroom, locking it from inside and closed my eyes.

He didn't really try that. He cannot be serious. I really didn't think my children would lead a abstinence but that they would try to do it in my house was overkill.  
And this idiotic grin on Edward's face!  
Well, I definitely wasn't twenty any longer but his look was almost covetous.

I could hear different noises coming from outside the room. The laughter of the young woman mixed with with Tony's and Edward's voices. I could only hope that this woman was dressed now. Then I could hear a cautious knock at the door.

"Baby?"

I sat my mind on ignoring my husband if only to avoid saying something to him that I would later regret. I went to our bed and lay down.

"Baby! Please open the door!" I rolled onto my side and tried to ban the scene I watched only mere minutes earlier and was now playing over and over in the back of my mind from my memory.

My baby …  
No, it couldn't be true …  
I had to fight back the memory that tried to resurface once again.  
I tried to take deep breath, calming me down somewhat, and not to overthink the situation.  
Tony was 17.  
17 was a good age to have sex.  
I myself had sex the first time at that age and Edward was even younger.  
I wondered whether this was his first time. But at the same time I didn't want to think about all the possibilities he could have had. Tony was an attractive young man. His body was big and slender and his coppery hair was constantly hanging in his face in a casual way. Was he a player?

I saw the woman with my mind's eye, she looked like she could have been at least thirty. Maybe I was naive and credulous but if this woman wanted to make me believe she didn't know how old Tony was and that he still lived with his parents, her brains weren't nearly half as big as her tits.

Instantly the image of Edward's grin came back to my mind.

"Don't be that way! Open up!"

"Pha!"

I let my head fall back on my pillow, I wanted to forget his face and this night as soon as possible.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think!


	3. Midweek Meltdown

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: Once again I want to thank everybody who favorited my story, put it on alert or reviewd it. It's really nice to see some kind of feedback.

Enjoy reading!

* * *

Out of habit I rolled to the right side of bed after being violently awoken by the sun. Like I always did, to get some strength from my man's arms. There was no resistance and I fell on my back and suddenly the images of last night came back.

I was still angry but got out of bed and went to the kitchen.

Surprised I took in the two glasses on the table and examined them closer. Sniffing them it became even clearer: here was drinking whiskey involved last night.

My oldest children avoided me this morning, only the twins coming down. Tara was her usual grumpy self and Aaron only managed greeting me but didn't say any other word. I was fed up with my childrens' behavior and I still couldn't forget Edward's behavior from last night so I decided to take a long walk to have some alone time, to think and blow off some steam.

Back home my mood hadn't changed for the better so I went down to the basement and tried to work my anger off on the crosstrainer. Maybe then I would get past the last few days' changes and my mood would regulate some.

Ninety minutes later I was drenched in sweat. Edward came down a few times and tried to talk to me but I didn't let him, I didn't even look his way whenever he entered the room. After the forth time he finally grasped that I didn't want to talk to him and left me alone.  
The door flew open and Leah was standing in front of me. Perplexed I halted my movement and looked at her puzzled.

"My son wants to drop out off school!"

"What?" I got off the crosstrainer and took a big mouthful from my water.

"Adam! He want to drop out of school, roam around the country without any money and eke out a living."

I couldn't believe a word Leah was saying. Adam was a bright kid, could get in any college he wanted to go. I couldn't think about any reason why he would want to pack in his education.

Leah was in real distress and tear were building up in her eyes. I didn't know what to say and hugged her like there was no tomorrow before dragging her to the kitchen to make us some tea.

When the tea was finished I sat down on the chair next to Leah I took her hand in my own.

"So, tell me again, from the beginning. Because I still can't comprehend it."

"He wants to go! Go to some countries and work as a volunteer! Do missionary work or what do I know!"

"Yes, but can't that wait for another year? At least till he finished high school?"

Teary eyed Leah blew his nose. "That's exactly what I told him but he doesn't want to wait another minute. He can't stand to be imprisoned by capitalism any longer"

The ringing of the telephone interrupted our conversation. "Hold on a sec. I have to get the phone."

The principal of the childrens' school was calling. There had been an incident with Tony. He was involved in a fight and we had to go to school. "Yes, we are coming."

Hanging up I went to get my husband. "EDWARD!" I didn't want to go all the way to his office when I could reach him this way.

"What's up?" He was halfway up the stairs from the basement.

"We have to go to the school." Puzzled Edward came up all the way.

"Tony was in a fight. We have to go there right away. I'm just taking a quick shower and get dressed. Leah is in the kitchen. Could you tell her that I will meet her this afternoon?" With this I went up and only twenty minutes later came back so that we could go pick up our son.

I could see Tony sitting in the principal's office when we stepped in. His shoulders were hanging down and his gaze was directed into his lap. I had to fight the urge to give him a slap on the back of his head. Quietly I sat down on the chair next to him. Cautiously he looked my way but averted his gaze again as soon as he could steal a glance my way. He knew he was in big trouble.

The principal gave a speech about appropriate behavior at the school, being civil with one another, respect and the principle of altruism.

"An that, Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, is the reason we can't accept such a behavior at our school. I hope you can understand that."

"Of cause" I was furious with Tony. How dare he to get into a fight at school; he was raised to know better, that violence wasn't the answer to any problem.

"We are going to suspend your son until the end of the week."

Nodding I stood up and went to the car, Edward and Tony silently following me.  
Nobody spoke on the way home.

Back home Tony went up to his room without being summoned to do so. I went to the family room and sat down on the couch. Pressing my lips together that they only resembled a thin line. Lost in my thoughts I looked at my inner wrists. After the birth of each of my children I had their names tattooed there with white ink. On my left wrist were the names of Anthony and Danielle, on my right one Tara and Aaron.

Edward came to sit next to me. He had the exact same tattoos.

We always were proud of our little angels and let them grow up with a lot of love and freedom but always made sure they knew what was right and wrong.

Edward put his arm around my shoulder in a comforting way. First tears were making its way down my cheek.

"I don't know where we went wrong." I let my arms down, putting my hands on my knees. "You didn't do anything wrong." Edward pulled me nearer his way and enveloped me in a hug. "They are teenagers. They do this kind of things."

"But didn't we always teach them that violence wasn't the answer?"

"Yes, we did. But our kids are filled up to the brim with hormones, they probably don't know what they are doing either."

We didn't talk for a while and I lay my head on Edward's shoulder. The one shoulder that was always there to give comfort and strength in hard times.

"Maybe I shouldn't have left you alone with them so often. Wasn't there when they needed their father."

"They have to learn that their behavior has consequences and I would be glad if you would stand behind my decisions and didn't pamper them or drink whiskey with them."

"Well, you know …"

I couldn't hide the smile when Edward desperately tried to formulate a explanation.  
I had to think back to Leah and the trouble she had with Adam and think about Rose and the trouble they were having at the other Cullen household. It seemed that we weren't the only ones who had problems with their children. Maybe all of this was part of growing up. And according to Sue I apparently wasn't any better when I was young but I honestly couldn't remember being such a handful as my own children.

Tenderly Edward was caressing my neck and I had to close my eyes at his touch. Forgotten was everything of the fight last night. I didn't want to spent any more energy on unnecessary anger regarding my children or my husband.

I was more than thankful for this little distraction. I turned my head in the direction of Edward and he softly kissed me. He then looked me deep in the eyes. "And? What are we going to do with him now? I mean … Do I punish him?"

I had to sigh, was I trying to forget about that now.

"No, I think we should do it together. Our children have to see that we are a unit. They can't get away with wrapping you around their little fingers. They have to see that we have more pull." With that said we both stood up and went to Tony to tell him about his punishment. He was treated the same as his sister a few days before him.

"Where is Tara?" I was a bit surprised to only see Dani and Aaron with Edward when he came back from picking the children up from school.

"At Jen's. YOU did allow it, right?" Smirking Edward shook his head at me.

Without speaking a word Dani disappeared upstairs.

"I wonder for how much longer she wants to keep up her behavior."

"That we have to see." I grabbed my jacket and went to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm meeting with Leah. She has some trouble with Adam. He wants to drop out of school."  
Taking the car keys from him, I kissed him goodbye and went to meet Leah.

I spent my afternoon with consoling Leah about Adam. It seemed like he made up his mind and there was no way anybody could change his mind. I really hoped he would come to his senses before it was too late.

In the evening I was sitting on the couch with Edward watching some movie. The house was quiet, almost too quiet. I worried if our children were up to something but as Edward began to place little kisses along my neck I dismissed the thought.

I smiled and turned off the TV to go up to the bedroom. I throw a seductive look Edward's way and went up the stairs. He did the same and followed me with long strides.

"Bills, bills, bills!" Edward was mumbling to himself when he entered the kitchen the next morning. In his hand he had a stack of letters. Sitting down on a chair he graciously took the coffee I offered to him.

"Wow! Dani has a cellphone bill of nearly $500! Really, do kids talk on the phone when they are standing next to each other?" I had to grin and sat with Edward to have a look at the credit card bill.

"Did Tara paint her room?"

"No, why?" I furrowed my brow and took a better look.

"A few days ago there were $70 dispatched by Amy's credit card for paint."

"Let me see." I took the bill from Edward and studied it.

"Hm, that's odd. I didn't know she painted her room." I put the bill back on the table but decided to talk to Tara later and ask her what the paint was for.

"I have a meeting at the hospital now but I will pick up the children from school later." Edward had come to my study where I was researching for a new book.

"OK. Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

Edward was playing with a strand of my hair.  
"Could you go grocery shopping later? For all I care take the kids with you but don't come home with any crap we don't need."

"You know me." He placed a kiss on my hair and went to his meeting.

I hadn't yet seen Tony today so I decided to bring him a sandwich.

Hesitantly I knocked on his door.

"Yes?" I opened the door and found my son in front of his computer.

"I brought you a sandwich."

"Put it down there." He didn't even look my way once which made me a bit nervous. "Anything else?" he asked with a hard edge to his voice which gave me a feeling that I wasn't welcome in his room any longer.

Undecided I was standing in front of Tara's room. I never went in any of my childrens' room without their being home. Always respecting their privacy but I really wanted to know what Tara needed the paint for.

With a sigh I opened the door and went into the room. Gazing around the room I took in the chaos that dominated this room. The floor was littered with clothes, notes, magazines and a lot of other unidentified things. I had to smile. This was one of the bad traits Tara got from my side of the family. My mother was the same and when I was younger I was used to this. But the chaotic room meant that there also was chaos inside of Tara, that was at least what I learned with my mom. The more confused she was the more chaotic got her surroundings.

But I couldn't see any paint.

I walked around the room and collected the used glassed when I found a flyer.

_"No blood for fashion!  
Come and help!  
On Tuesday at the squat down at the harbor!"_

I read the text when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. Tony was standing in the door frame and looked at me with surprise. "Are you rummaging through Tara's room now?"

Shocked I let the flyer drop and went to the door with the glasses in my hand. "No. We didn't have any clear glasses in the cupboard."

I felt caught like some little kid stealing sweets. "Could you bring me yours too?" Stepping around my son I went back downstairs hoping he wouldn't tell Tara about what he saw.

Later that day I stood at the base of the stairs and listened to the door banging happening upstairs.

"What's going on up there?" Edward came to stand next to me and looked up the stairs.

"I don't know. But I think they are up to something." I listened some more but couldn't make out any more noises.

I couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was going on with the children. I knew that they didn't come to me any longer when they had something going on, they preferred to console with each other and this made me tad sad but I could understand their behavior. I was the same at that age, preferring to talk to Leah than to my parents or Sue.

Trying to get this off my mind I grabbed a book and lay down with it in the family room. I used Edward's lap as my pillow who was engrossed in one of his medical journals. He absentmindedly caressed my hair with one hand from time to time, the other one was holding the journal at arm's length.

I tried to ignore his behavior and concentrate on my book but my gaze always wandered back to Edward's outstretched arm.

This was making me insane.

I sat up with a loud sigh and looked at him.

He looked at me, pulled his arm back to his body and smiled. "Do you think I should buy a motorbike?"

Wide eyed, my look changed into a disbelieving one. When I noticed that he didn't made a joke my eyes became smaller and smaller until they were mere slits. Jumping up off the couch I looked at him as if he was insane. "NO!" I turned my back on Edward and stalked out the room.

"That can't be true. My children are up to something, don't talk to me and my dear husband decides to have his mid-life crisis? I'm cracking up! They can't be serious." Shaking my head I took my jacket and opened the front door, but not before I screamed a "LOONY BIN!" back inside.

The door fell close but I wasn't finished with Edward yet. I opened the door again and didn't go back to the family room but yelled from the foyer. "AND WEAR YOUR GLASSES!" I let the front door fall close for good.

I was on my best way to fall asleep.

After taking a long walk I went to Tanya to complain about Edward. Tanya was the youngest of the Cullen cousins and came to live in Seattle some years ago. Her daughter Samira was one of Dani's closest friends. To get some distraction Tanya took me to one of those poetry cafes where we were sitting for some hours now. Listening to some tortured students on the crossroads of their lives. Tanya was sitting next to me, closely listening to a guy in his mid-twenties dressed all in black and complaining about his hard life.

My eyes were falling close again and again. What did this boy know about life? He should become a father before complaining about anything. Involved in my thoughts my eyes drifted close for good.

"Hey! Wake up!"

I was woken by someone shaking my arm. Squinting I opened my eyes and tried to discover my whereabouts. It took me a few seconds to remember that I was at some poetry slam and some more seconds to examine that the room now was lit with light and people where on their way outside. Sighting I stood up and thought about how Tanya could listen to this crap all night.

We were standing on the sidewalk and I rubbed my burning eyes. "What time is it?" I looked at Tanya and had to hide a yawn at the same time.

"Five thirty."

"WHAT?" I couldn't believe it and had to check my own watch. But it really was that late. "I have to go home!" I said goodbye to Tanya and hailed a cab to take me home.

Back home the sun had risen and to my surprise I noticed that my children got up without my interfering.

I wanted nothing more than to go to bed.

"Where have you been?" Edward cam to me from the kitchen.

"I went out with your cousin." I looked at him expectantly but when he didn't respond I went on. "I'm dead tired. I'm off to bed." With this I went up the stairs. At that moment Dani came down to stairs and glared my way.

"Danielle?" I grabbed her arm to stop her from ignoring me now. "This isn't funny any more. I didn't do anything."

She broke free her arm from my grab and went to the kitchen.

With a sigh I stood in the upstairs hallway. The last few days had been hell. I was exhausted. I really wanted to smoke some but I knew that wouldn't help either. For a brief moment I considered asking some professional for help with raising our children.

It was our own fault that they were acting that way now. We always anticipated their every wish, they always got what they wanted and now that they didn't got their way they were acting out.

I rubbed my temples and sat down on the bed. I rubbed and rubbed, hoping that the solution would come to me and my family could live in harmony once again. That didn't happen and I fell back on the bed, sleeping mere seconds later.

When I woke up at noon again nobody was at home. Nobody? Well, of cause not. Tony was sitting in the family room watching TV. I sat down next to him and observed him watching TV.

"Am I a bad mother?" I really didn't want to ask that question but it came out before I could stop it.

Tony looked at me with irritation. Looking me up and down as if there was something wrong with me. "Excuse me?"

"Well, you all seem to avoid to talk to me, only look at me in a disdain way and avoid my overall company. Well? What did I do?"

"Wow, I don't know whether I want to have this kind of conversation with you."

"But I want to. Doesn't count what I want at all? Am I not important? Don't I have wishes and needs, too? Does everything always have to be your way? Don't my wishes count any longer?" I was no longer filtering my verbal tirade and Tony's eyes grew with each question.

There was silence after my last question. Tony did switch off the TV and turned my way.

"Well, you know mom …" His fingers were tipping against each other and he gave off a nervous feeling. "You are not a bad mother, nobody said that. But there are things we don't want to talk about with you."

"What things?"

"Things!"

Things, what kind of answer is that? Couldn't he think of something even denser?

Critically I eyeballed my son. "Okay … But if you had any problems with the law or something, serious problems, you would come to one of us, right?" I had to think back to the flyer I found in Tara's room.

Tony kissed me on the forehead. "Of cause!"

Then he went back upstairs before I could ask any more questions. Of cause I knew that Tony avoided my question. I was neither dump nor dense. I decided to take a shower and see what the rest of the day would bring.

I just finished dressing when the door bell rang.

Did I expect someone to come? No. Astonished I opened the door to find Tanya and the weird poet from tonight. Like last night he was dressed in black but his looks were intensified by a long black leather coat. His long black hair was held back with a tight ponytail. He looked kind of eerie and let me think of the kind of vampire I was scared of when I was younger.

"Hi, what are you doing here?"

Tanya stepped into the foyer. "Well, you suddenly left this morning that I didn't had the time to introduce you to Daniel." She pointed to the weird guy he offered me his hand in greeting. Hesitantly I shook it but let it go as soon as possible.

"Hello Daniel." I didn't quite grasp why my cousin in-law was introducing him to me.

"He is my new boyfriend."

My eyes nearly popped out. Although Tanya was the youngest cousin she still was at least 12 years older. Still looking warily I didn't quite know what to do. "Hmm, … well … do you want a tea or something?" I invited them to take a seat in the in the family room and Tanya dragged Daniel to the couch.

"Coffee, black!" came the quick answer of the young man and I was left standing alone in the foyer.

Shaking my head I went to the kitchen to make some coffee. I tired to balance three cups to the living room on a tray where Tanya and Daniel were busy kissing. I cleared my throat to let them know that I was back and the two of them sat up straight. I took a seat on the armchair and eyeballed them critically. Why were they here? The black guy lit a cigarette without asking and I throw an evil glare at Tanya. She only shrugged her shoulders and smiled before she stood up to look for an ashtray. Both Edward and I didn't smoke and normally we didn't tolerate any smoking in our house the only exception was when there was a bigger party held here.

"So? What do you want?"

"Well, it's like this." Tanya looked at me. "You told me yesterday that you had some problems with your kids and I thought that maybe Daniel could help."

I had no clue what she meant. How was this guy able to help us?

"He studies to be a educationalist, you know?"

WHAT? Now I was really alarmed. I felt that he was uncanny from the start but now the guy that only yesterday read muddleheaded stuff about death and mental pains was working with children? This scared me. It scared me even more that exactly this guy claimed to know more about my children than I myself. Tanya couldn't be serious.

She caught my appalled look and tried to explain the situation to me. "He works a lot with children in this age-group. He knows what's going on in their minds and how to best handle them and stuff like that."

Who released such a guy to their children willingly?

And now he started to tell me about alternative educational methods. I put up my 'I'm interested in what you're talking about' face and let my mind wander. It was like being back at school. This little trick had always worked. I was a bit surprised that it was still working.  
Only occasionally did I listen and caught bits and pieces like 'let them grow' and 'anti-authoritarian upbringing'. Yup, that really was something. I would ship my children off to England to attend Summerhill and let the people there deal with them. But I then had to consider what to do with all my energy.

Relieved I closed the door after my guest went home. Wasn't it enough that my family went wild? Did Tanya have to go postal, too?

I was in the motion of going back to the family room when the front door was opened again and Edward came in with the children. "Hello baby." He came to me and kissed me in greeting. My children went upstairs without further ado.

Once again I was remembered just how good I knew my husband. I caught the meaningful look he threw at Tara which let me believe that the both of them kept something from me. "Do I want to know?"

Dumbfounded Edward looked at me and asked me with an exhausted voice what I wanted to know.

"What you and Tara are keeping from me." Edward knew I caught him. He was like an open book for me, so easy to read, whenever I wanted. "You know what?" Tiered I rubbed my temples. "I don't want to know. I appeal to your fatherly authority once again. They are our children and at the moment definitely not our friends and I know they take advantage of you frequently. So whatever you two keep from me, you are a grown man and I hope you act appropriately. Nor not, whatever."

We were back in the family room and I let my head fall against Edward's chest and he hold it, like he always did to give me strength when I was down. He was thinking about what I said, that was clear.

"Let's elope!" he fondly whispered into my hair which bemused me.

"I don't know whether you know but we already are married."

"Yes, I know. I didn't mean it like that. I meant let's go away, just the two of us. Let's do something nice. Call Tanya and let her take care of the kids for some time."

"Over my dead body! She isn't going to bring this vampire educationalist into this house again and especially not when my children are home!"

"Who?" Now Edward was confused so I told him about the new boyfriend his cousin was seeing. Edward furrowed his brow as he listened to me. "Maybe it's the Cullen' genes that make you and our children weird."

"Yeah, right. So now I'm weird?" Edward folded his arms in front of his chest and looked at me in a offended way, which let me to giggle. "Not more than you normally are." I tried to appease him and was glad that he was able to make me smile. After all I was nearly as much peeved at him as I was at out children recently. And that was exactly one of the reasons why I did love him so much.

"Well that puts my mind at ease." He had to grin as well and fondly pressed a reconciliation kiss on my lips.

We decided to go for a walk and let the children. Edward's yell was met by an equally loud one coming from Tara, letting us know that she heard us.

We were just entering the foyer coming back relaxed from our walk when we heard our oldest son yell "FUCK" at the top of his lungs. Following his voice into the kitchen we were met with smoke.

"What's going on in here?"

"We bring a smoke sacrifice." Tara smiled at us.

I saw that Tony standing at the sink, a pot filled with something indescribable which was the source of all the smoke, grabbing one of his fingers with the other hand. I rushed towards him and put his burnt hand under a stream of cold water.

Edward followed me into the direction of the kitchen but stayed in the door frame with his arms crossed. "May I ask what this is going to be when it's finished?"

"Dinner!" Aaron critically eyed first the pot in the sink and then his father again who had started roaring loudly.

"That's nice of you." I glanced back at my son's burnt fingers. "But we really should practice cooking sometime. I mean packet soup … even your father can do that."

Abruptly the laughter died and Edward protested. "What's that supposed to mean? I know how to cook."

"Than put your knowledge into action sometime!"

"Are you fighting now?" Tara asked. "Because I'm hungry and stuff." With that she took a seat and demonstratively took knife and fork in her hands. We all followed her example.

"Where's Dani?" Edward wanted to know while he buttered a slice of toast.

"She doesn't feel so well. She laid down a bit." Tony shrugged his shoulders and put a slice of ham on his toast which earned him an evil glare from his sister. He mumbled a "Freak" her way which was met with a mumbled "Murderer" by Tara which let us all laugh heartily.

Even after we finished off dinner we sat together. Talking about trivial things. We talked about Tony's plans for next year, he wanted to study law in Berkeley, we talked about that Aaron wanted to join a band and Tara's job at the animal shelter.

I rejoiced in this family time. In this moment my little monsters were all grown up and we were able to have a good conversation without having anybody yelling. Edward smiled my way while caressing the back of my hand. The only thing missing was my oldest daughter. But I guess you couldn't have everything in life.

I found Dani sitting on the base of the stairs staring into thin air. "Dani?" She cringed when she heard my voice and I could see tears building in her eyes. "What's wrong? Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" I wanted to hug her but before I was able to extent my arms Dani stood up, glaring at me.

"LEAVE ME ALONE! I HATE YOU!" she screamed at me and took off up the stairs.

I had to take some deep breath to calm down when I felt the big hands of my man on my shoulders. I turned around and buried my face in his chest. "It's not fair! I didn't do anything! She has no reason to hate me!" I sobbed out and was directly soothed by Edward caressing my back.

I couldn't come up with something that could be wrong with Danielle. She wasn't talking to anybody when I was around.

"Shh! I know her actions hurt you but I can't tell you what's wrong with her either. Let's hope it's going to pass soon. Hopefully this are only hormones."

I hiccoughed loudly a few more times before pushing Edward lightly away from me to look him in the eyes.

"We have three more children who are behaving somewhat normally today. So let's go to them and let Dani be. Okay?"

"Yeah, agreed although I can't get off the feeling that something is wrong here. They are too normal now. They're up to something, love."

Edward's index finger was tracing down my nose. "I think you're a bit pessimistic here. They just wanted to surprise us. So, come on …!" He placed a soft kiss on my lips, took my hand and lead me to the kitchen, back to my other children.

The rest of the evening was spent together and at the end our children even were set to do the dishes too. Edward and I were still seated at the table, watching out kids. After everything was clean the three of them took off to their rooms but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that they were up to something.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment and I'll send you a sneak peek!

I know I cramed three days into this chapter but there is still a lot that is left unsaid. Some stuff Edward and more importantly Bella know nothing about and because the kids don't want to talk to her I'm giving Tara the opportunity to speak up next chapter. So, stay tuned.


	4. Interlude: Tara's Take

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: Again, thanks everyone for reviewing, alterting and putting this story to your favorite list. You make my day each time I get a new notification!  
This chapter mildly hints at the use of illegal drugs. Just telling.  
Now, enjoy reading!

* * *

I was really glad when mom was back from her book tour. I kind of missed her, we all did but probably wouldn't tell that, except of dad. He took off work to take care of us, his words, not mine. I didn't really know why he had to take time off work for that but well, he'd probably gone sentimental in his old age. He wasn't the youngest any more, neither was mom but still she was younger than him, and I think that was just some excuse to take off some time. He spent most of the time either on the golf course or in the living room in front of his piano. He loved this thing and I still remember that when we were younger he always played for us all the time. He still does sometimes play at Christmas. I think he is a bit sad that neither of us kids choose to learn how to play piano. We weren't really musical, except of Aaron, but he preferred his guitar. He was quite good and he told me last week that he thought about joining a band.

Then on Sunday, when mom sent me up before dinner to fetch my siblings I of cause went to annoy Danielle a bit. I knew she went to one of those parties and she took Alexis with her. And wherever Danielle went, Rachel and Sami never were far away. It was kind of sickening to see them slave away to conform the stereotype of the All American high school cheerleader. But I didn't have to like it. Dani was wiped out and I had a hell of a lot fun to wake her, see her suffer from her hangover. I didn't go easy on her.

Tony was next and I didn't even bother to go into his room, only telling him through the closed door.

My little brother was another story. We were actually twins, but I was born eight and a half minute earlier than him, so that technically made him my little brother. He was kind of distant in the last few weeks. We used to talk about anything and everything when we were younger, he was my very best friend. Apparently that was a twin thing or something.  
His room was a complete mess, kinda like mine, used plates piling on his desk, magazines, CDs, dirty clothes, books, anything you can think of was laying around all over the floor. It didn't seem to annoy my brother. He was placidly sitting in front of his PC playing some kind of ego-shooter.

One magazine caught my gaze and I picked it up. It was some kind of sex magazine featuring a busty blonde on the cover. When he caught me looking at his stuff all the color drained from his face and he sat stock-still. I found it amusing to find this kind of magazine in his room but he seemed shocked that I uncovered his little secret. Calmly I told him to come down to dinner.

Then all hell broke loose on Sunday evening. It was tense the whole day but when dad called in his family conference we knew that there was some trouble. He had never done anything like that. Danielle screwed up and all of us had to sit through our dad's sermon. He was really harsh to Danielle in the end. I didn't think she deserved that, but what could I do?

Mom drove us to school on Monday because Dani was punished. I didn't think it was fair that the rest of us had to suffer too but our parents didn't want to have it any other way. It was really awkward to be driven to school by your mother and I was glad that my friends didn't see me.

I made my way into the building where my friends were waiting for me near the library. Trevor came to me. He was my boyfriend who moved here in the spring. He got me involved with all the activist things I'm into now. He was the one to show me how to grow my tomatoes, although my grandma helped too, and introduce me to vegetarianism. And now we were together since one and a half month.

Trevor enveloped me in a hug and pressed his lips onto mine. "Are you coming tomorrow night?" he was looking at me expectantly.

"Well, you know, Trevor, hmm …" I didn't want to cancel, this thing was important to me and Trevor, but with all the stuff going on at home I wasn't really sure whether this was a wise idea and whether my parents would allow me to go.

"I don't know if my parents would allow that. All hell broke loose at home over the weekend."

"You could always tell them that you stay at my house and we go to school together the next morning," Jen interfered. She was one of my new friends. She had helped me with my new hairstyle.

"I'll try. But I can't promise anything."

Then the bell rang and we had to go to classes.

Later at home I finally got up the nerves to ask mom if I could stay at Jen's house the next day. When I went down to ask her I found her in the family room with my Aunt Sue. Apparently my parents thought that we still needed a babysitter when they both went out but at least mom allowed me to stay at Jen's house. They were going to meet Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper for dinner and I was kind of jealous that they wouldn't take us with them. I hardly ever saw my godfather. Maybe once or twice a year. The last time I saw him wasn't that long ago when we went down to Dallas for my cousins birthday at the beginning of the summer.

It were the most boring ten days of my vacation. Tony and Dani only hung out with Jake. He was uncle Jasper's son from a relationship before he had met Alice and took my older siblings to his college parties. Emma and Lily, my twin cousins, were all about shopping the whole time, mainly ignoring Aaron and me. This left us at home with our little cousin Sebastian most of the time and he and Aaron were mainly playing Playstation, which left me with the books I brought with me. Yeah, this holiday really sucked.

I spent the rest of the evening online chatting with Jen, Trevor and others who would be there tomorrow.

On Tuesday morning it was still tense and I think something big happened last night. I heard screaming and laughing and loud talking. Mom was pissed this morning and left even before we had to go to school. So dad had to drive us.

At school I followed Aaron around the building of the school. He didn't notice that I was following him and sat down in the grass with his friends. There was a blunt that was passed around in a circle and I thought I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Aaron toking.

Determined I slumped down next to my brother who visibly cringed when he noticed that it was me. He was even more shocked when I took the blunt, inhaled deeply and didn't had to cough and kept a straight face. He didn't know that I had my own experience when it came to smoking this kind of things.

"It seems you aren't inexperienced in this department," my little brother noticed.

I was amused. "Yup, you're right."

His friends went away, leaving only me and Aaron behind.

"And because I have my experiences and have known you for 14 years now I know something's wrong. Right? What's going on?" turning my head in his direction I took him in, sitting cross-legged fumbling with his shoelaces.

"Come on, what's wrong?"

"Everything's fucked up!"

"Really? Why?"

"Well, who am I? Tony's the jock, everyone loves him, Dani too, she's the beauty and you, you're the one standing up to your beliefs. And who am I? I'm the little brother. Did you know that nobody knew my name when we first came here. I always only was Tony, Dani or Tara's brother. I'm nobody!"

I didn't know how to response so we sat together in silence for a while.

"I think you're imagining things. I mean, you've a lot of great qualities. You're musical, just like dad, and good at acting. Why don't you join the musical group?"

"Only fags join musical!"

"And you're not one?"

"NO!" he sounded indignant.

I stood up but before I went away I turned to Aaron again.

"You're good at sports, join the swimming team or whatever. If you only sit here behind this wall nobody will notice you. And now, please excuse me, I have a lot to do today."

I already was on my way back to the entrance when Aaron called me back, grabbing my arm. "Tara!"

"What?"

He stood too and looked me up and down. "I know what you have planned for today, I don't think you should go through with it."

Did he really know?

"Jen told me … And I think this will only go wrong. And it's messed up enough at home as it is. Besides this Trevor guy … I don't think he's really loyal …"

I pulled out of my brothers grip. "That's non of your business."

Angry at him I trudged back to the school building to look for Trevor.

Still outside I could already hear the commotion. Running the rest of the way I could hear my other brother screaming at someone. "YOU LITTLE FUCKER!"

"TONY!"

I had to take in the picture of my older brother beating the shit out of my boyfriend. Trevor was laying on the floor, blood gushing out of his nose. Tony was straddling him and hitting his face again and again but as soon as he heard my shouting he let go of Trevor.

I swept towards them and cowered down next to my boyfriend.

"What did you think?" I pushed Tony off Trevor.

Tony was telling me something but I didn't really listen, I was preoccupied stopping the bleeding of Trevor's nose.

"Come, let's go see the nurse." I helped him up, which wasn't the easiest task. I was furious with Tony.

"You're such an asshole! Why did you do that?"

"He … was making out with this girl," he pointed to the rows of lockers a few feet away but there was no girl.

"Just because you're afraid of commitment and prefer to hook up with every willing slut you don't need to destroy other people's relationships!"

I was pissed off. How could Tony willingly destroy my happiness? I hated him at that moment. I didn't want to ever see him again.

I was glad that I didn't had to go home but could stay with Jen for the day.

In the evening we went to the harbor. There was this squat where a lot of people wanted to meet today. It was planned to crash Seattle Fashion Week and protest against fur fashion. We had planned to paint-bomb any models with fur on the runway.

The house was already packed when Jen and I entered. We talked with a few guys with which we participated in other demonstrations and made our way to look for our friends. We found them upstairs in one of the rooms.

Sitting in Trevor's lap I could feel how he shoved his hand up under my shirt.

"Come on, babe!"

I stopped his hand, it didn't feel right there on my skin.

"NO. I don't want to." I sat up to better ward him off. "You don't really think that I will have sex with you here, right?"

The house was packed and I didn't know half of the folks that were here. Most of them were already drunk or drugged up. The house was secluded, there wasn't much going on in this part of the harbor that late.

"Nobody will care," he looked at me both impatiently and provokingly.

"I care!" I pointed my finger at myself to emphasize my point. I didn't want to experience my first time in this setting. I always imagined it more romantic.

I could see Jen entering the room with another girl by her side.

"Jenny!" grateful for this distraction I jumped off Trevor's lap and walked towards the two girls.

"Tara, this is Laurie."

"Hi!" She seemed nice. Her short blonde hair framing her face.

"So, we wanted to take off soon, we are going to meet up downstairs in ten minutes to take off. Did you bring paint?"

"Yup!" I pointed to my bag in the corner. The very first time I heard about the idea of crashing the fur fashion show I was hooked with it.

"So, can we go downstairs?"

Jen looked at her watch. "You go down. I'm making a detour to the toilets."

I'd seen Laurie and Trevor going downstairs while I talked with Jen. I couldn't see them from where I stood and thought it was better to wait for Jen at the stairs, so that I wouldn't loose her, too.

When she descended the stairs Jen abruptly stopped, her mouth wide open. She had seen something that was disturbing her. I ran up to her and could see Trevor and Laurie.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Trevor had Laurie pressed against a wall and they were fiercely making out. Their movements seemed too familiar that I had to guess that this wasn't the first time they were kissing.

Slowly I took the steps back upstairs, not averting my gaze from the kissing couple. We could see how Trevor and Laurie were pushed out the door with the leaving masses.

Jen seemed undecided whether to stay with me or go to the fashion show but followed me up the stairs in the end.

The house that was filled with loud noises mere minutes before lay now in complete silence. It was almost a bit creepy.

I sat down at the top of the stairs and Jen soon sat next to me. We were quiet for a long time before Jen started to speak, "Do you … I mean … do you want to talk or something?"

I had to gulp. I had to see that Tony was right and I accused him of telling lies. I didn't want to believe and had stood up for Trevor. I was endlessly sorry. Poor Tony was now sitting at home and had to face the wrath of our parents because he wanted to defend my honor. It would take a lot to make it up to him.

"I just want to leave," I told her.

We took a cab back to Jen's place and I was glad that I didn't have to go home tonight.

We didn't talk much for the remainder of the day. Watching a movie before we went to bed.

The next morning at school I was confronted by my sister. She was strolling my way when she called my name. "Tara!"

I didn't want to talk to anybody but when Dani approached me I didn't see a way to avoid her.

She looked me up and down and shook her head. I knew that I didn't look my best. I hardly ever slept last night, only tossing and turning on the mattress. My hair looked quite bad and I was sure to have dark circles under my eyes.

When her arms embraced me my dam broke again and tears were once again rolling down my cheeks.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe Tony!" I sobbed out before I snuffled loudly.

Danielle talked at me, trying to clam me down. "It's okay. You know him, he's going to forgive you, he always does. He's happy knowing you know what an asshole Trevor is."

Wiping away the tears with the sleeve of my jacket I couldn't believe how Dani had the strength to coddle me up while she had a lot of stuff going on herself.

I wanted to be prepared for mom and dad's wrath at home so I asked Dani about their reaction to Tony's behavior.

"He's grounded, just like me."

I frowned at that. If he got grounded I didn't want to think about the things that would await me had any of my brothers slipped what I was up to.

"Don't panic! He didn't rat on you. Nobody's going to punish you or something unless … I don't know what happened last night."

"Nothing happened. After the stuff with Trevor …"

She seemed relieved.

"And? What are you going to do?" I still didn't think that it was wise not to talk to mom about her problems. But what could I do? After all I only was the little sister.

The school bell rang and had us go our separate ways. But before we parted, Dani shrugged and told me, "Friday." before she left for her classroom.

I tried to avoid any of my friends all day, choosing to eat lunch on my own rather than sit with Trevor and the others. Jen stayed at my side for the whole time.

I was nervous as I stood in front of Tony's room. The door was closed and I couldn't hear any noises coming from it but I was sure he was in there. I wanted to apologize to him, after all it was my fault he got into the fight in the first place.

After school, dad had picked us up and took us to the supermarket with him. There I had bought Tony's favorite chocolate which I was now clutching to my chest. Chocolate was the key to Tony's heart. Whenever I had to apologize to him I brought him the same type of chocolate.

Now I warily knocked at the door and waited for a reply.

"Come in."

"Hi," I greeted him and reluctantly and entered his room. He was sitting in front of his PC but faced me as soon as I closed the door behind me.

He caught sight of the chocolate that was still pressed to my chest, smirking at me when I silently offered it to him.

"Thanks."

I stood there in silence for a long time and he was staring at me. When I thought I couldn't take it any more he finally spoke, "I'd do it again, anytime."

His gaze was hooded with anger and disappointment.

"I'll always protect you. However you should stop to give your heart away each time some guy is flirting with you. Dani's the same. You're both to good for this shit. And now we know where this is gonna lead."

I started crying again and Tony enveloped me in a brotherly hug.

"Can I join you?" Danielle asked. She was standing in the frame of the door looking at us.

Tony invited her to our hug by extending one arm to her. She joined us and we stood still in the embrace. Each of us lost in our own thoughts.

When Aaron joined us after he indicated that he was in the room too by knocking on the door frame and closing the door behind him we stayed locked in our now four-person-hug for a few more minutes before we broke it up. Dani and Aaron sat down on the bed while I took a seat on the floor and Tony sat back on his chair.

"What are we going to do now? We have to come up with a plan for Friday," he asked while looking at each of us.

"I have a free period, I'm going to manage." Dani was visibly uncomfortable with being our topic.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to mom about it?"

She frowned at me. "Yes, I'm sure. But maybe you should talk to mom about hanging out in abandoned buildings."

"Wow, now I'm the topic of this discussion again? I never even went to the fashion show," I tried to defend myself against the accusations of my sister. But I could feel that my brothers weren't pleased with my behavior either.

"She's right, you know. You shouldn't mess around with this kind of people. Animal and environmental protection are well and good but the stuff they are doing is against the law!" Aaron got in to our argument.

I felt uncomfortable with all the looks on me now and I was searching for a way to change the topic.

Deep down I knew my siblings were right. But I hung out with this people to make an impression on Trevor.

I looked back at all three of them and found them all with averted heads. I'm sure neither of them wanted to become the new topic.

"Well brilliant, you can all talk about me and my problems but we can't talk about yours or what?" I complained.

"I don't know what you want. I don't have any problems. The only problem I have is that I'm grounded because I stood up for you," Tony spoke up.

"Pfft," Dani was clearly not pleased with his answer. "Maybe we should talk about your little problem with women you seem to have ever since Jessica broke up with you."

Now Tony was glaring at Dani. It was a bad breakup he went through after he broke up with Jessica last March. Nothing and nobody could cheer him up. We all tried, even Ryan came back from California to try his luck. Ever since then he slept around.

"Maybe we should talk about Aaron's problem with this best friend Mr. Weed."

"You're blazing?" Dani's was appalled and Aaron visibly cringed when he became our new topic but seemed angry at the accusing tone of our sister's voice.

"So what? Tara's the same and you booze! Which YOU shouldn't do to save your life. I at last don't harm anybody else!"

And all of a sudden we were wildly throwing accusations at each other. Reproaching each other and disclaiming blame.

The first to leave the room was Danielle, she had tears in her eyes when she slammed the door shut, shortly followed by Aaron.

Undetermined whether to stay or go like my siblings I stood in Tony's room for a few more minutes but when he turned towards is PC the decision was made for me and I went back to my room.

I could hear my mother's screaming and went downstairs to investigate. Halfway down the stairs I could see my dad at the door, Trevor standing in front of him. I was furious. How dare he coming to my house after everything he did to me!

"What do you want here?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest and stared icily at him.

"I … er …" He was helplessly looking at my dad who was still standing in the foyer. "You suddenly disappeared yesterday. I was worried."

Sneeringly I raised one eyebrow. "I think Laurie was pretty good at helping you overcome your worries!"

Trevor was visibly shocked.

"Piss off! I'm done with you!" I pushed him out of the door and could see him landing on his butt on our driveway. "I don't wanna ever see you again!" With a thud the door slammed close.

Turning back to go to my room I was stopped by my dad. He glanced at me questioningly. "Who was that?"

I estimated how quick I could run up the stairs and get to my room but had to realize that my dad would catch up with me. He may no longer be the youngest but was still fit as a fiddle. I was at his mercy. The only thing that could help me now was to tell the truth and smiling a bit to put him in a merciful mood.

"Umm … well … since yesterday night … my ex-boyfriend."

"Okay? I didn't know you had a boyfriend let alone a ex-boyfriend."

"Yeah well … you know …" How did I explain this to him? "I had my reasons why I didn't tell you." I smiled up at him innocently but was met with a hard stare. "Which are?"

"Well …"

"Well what? Is he taking drugs? Or is he a criminal? There has to be some kind of reason for it."

"No, actually … you know … the reason is … mom!"

He didn't seem to make the connection why mom was the reason. "I don't remember that your mother forbid any of you to have boyfriends or girlfriends."

No, she didn't forbid it at all, but still. "Yeah … well …" I contemplated crying as a mean to get out of this conversation.

"Well?"

"Do you remember when Tony brought Jessica here for the first time?"

"Yes." He still didn't seem to understand, although Tony was pissed at mom and let her know for quite a few days.

"Mom lectured them about responsibility in a relationship, about love and a great deal about sex. That was totally embarrassing." Thinking back about that conversation I had to gag. It was horrible and Tony was scarred for life. I was sure I would never survive this kind of conversation with my parents without getting any mental damage.

Dad looked like he had a hard time containing his smile and then he looked at me for a long time and I nearly got the impression that I was on the safe side so I turned to go back upstairs but was interrupted by dad who blocked the way up the stairs.

"Where have you been last night?" I knew dad had me there and grimaced but quickly squinted my eyes so that dad didn't notice.

"At Jen's?"

He didn't seem to believe me. "No, you weren't at Jen's otherwise the boy didn't had to worry about your abrupt departure last night. So, where have you been?"

The only thing that could save me now was when I would start crying. So I took a few deep breaths and that's when the first tears started to roll down my cheeks.

"I didn't want to, dad! Really!" I was sobbing loudly now and it wasn't in my control any longer. "We wanted to go to this fur fashion show and ruin the furs with paint. I told Trevor that it wasn't right to destroy them but he told me that I had to … and he cheated on me … and Jen and me stayed back … and …" My tears were falling in earnest now as I realized that it happened that way. From the very beginning I was against this activity but Trevor talked me into it. I had to stop my explanation and let my shoulders slump down.

I think dad believed what I was telling him because he enveloped me with his arms. Whispering soothing words in my ear. When I had calmed down he promised me that he wouldn't tell mom about this conversation and that it would be our little secret.

On Thursday we were all back in Tony's room and he was nervously telling us about the conversation he had with mom earlier. How she forced him to talk to her.

" She's getting suspicious," I pinpointed.

"Does she have reason to?" Tony looked at each of us but neither of the three of us dared to look up.

"Okay, this is my suggestion. Let's go downstairs and do something with her. Be good children and cut down her worries." Aaron told us.

"Yeah, sure, and mom is going to buy that and won't get more suspicious or what?" Could my little brother really believe that this would work?

"Not when we do it right. She's pretty naive and addicted to harmony, right? Also it's like that: she's always complaining that we always schmooze dad to get him on our side but on the other hand she is the same with dad without even noticing it. We can do the same with her, right?"

"It could work." Tony nodded. "But apart from that we really weren't that nice to her the last few weeks. I don't know … she seemed really frustrated today."

We could hear mom yelling from downstairs that our parents would go out for a bit. I was the first to react, going out into the hall and telling her that we had heard her. I waited there until I could hear the front door fall close before I went back to my siblings.

"That's our opportunity. I suggest we go downstairs and prepare dinner. I'm sure mom will be quite surprised when she'll be back."

My brothers approved with a nod each and Tony turned to Dani. "What about you?"

She was sitting on the bed, her legs tucked up and her arms wrapped around them. "Do as you please, I'm staying upstairs." She sounded snotty and we had to accept that we wouldn't get her to join us. So the three of us went down to the kitchen.

"Okay, and what are we going to do now?" Aaron asked and we all raided the cupboards.

"Don't know. Is any of you good at cooking?" Tony seemed helpless but both Aaron and me had to answer in the negative.

"Why can't you cook Tara, you're a girl!"

Really? Was he really asking that? I threw an evil glare at my twin which let him to shy away from me.

"Okay, it's sandwiches then. There's nothing to be said against it, right?" said Tony as he went to the fridge to grap the toast.

"You set the table Aaron and Tara get the cold cuts and some cheese, I'm brewing some tea and ..."

Triumphantly Tony unsheathed a sachet from the cupboard.

"... and soup. That can't be that hard."

Soon we were all occupied with our tasks and the table was set and the soup boiling. I stood in front of the fridge, tupper ware in my hand and peeking inside only to see some kind of cut chicken. This was really disgusting and I had to fight my gag reflex. Smiling Tony came to stand next to me and took the tupper ware from my hands to put the meat on a plate at the table.

"Could you tell me one thing Tara. What the hell do you eat?'

"Vegetables, rice, grain …"

"That sounds well-balanced," taunted Aaron.

"Yes yes, you can taunt me all you want. In the meantime I'm going to watch your meat contaminated soup scorching."

I smirked at my brothers while Tony dived to the stove.

Thick smoke was coming from the pot.

"FUCK!"

With the help of a towel, which couldn't avoid Tony from burning his fingers, the pot went flying to the sink.

Both Aaron and me had to laugh loudly watching this spectacle.

Mom came flying into the kitchen and when she was satisfied that Tony was okay we had dinner and talked for a long time afterwards. This was the first time in a long while at which we all sat down and got along with each other. It was Dani's own fault that she didn't join us.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment and I'll send you a preview of the next chapter!

How did you like Tara? Now you know a bit more what happens in the kids' lives. Did you like it?

We have two more days to go. So, stay tuned.


	5. Friday Finale

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: Thank you everyone for reviewing, alterting and putting this story to your favorite list. You make my day each time I get a new notification!  
We are getting to the core of everything now.  
So please enjoy reading!

* * *

I woke up from a night of fitful sleep. I couldn't leave Dani's words behind me and they were following me into my dreams. I really thought about them but honestly couldn't think of anything awful that I could have done to my daughter. I never demanded anything from her, let her do anything she wanted, always supporting her. Could that have been a mistake? Was I too inconsequential?

Silently I took off to the kitchen to start the day with a cup of coffee. I sat near the window, gazing outside and letting my mind wander.

Ten minutes later Edward came back from his morning jog, offering some more coffee to me which I declined before continuing to stare out the window.

What should I do if Danielle slipped from my hands? I was scared that she would someday go away without telling us where she went and never come back. So I decided to have a serious talk with my daughter this afternoon. I wanted to know what was going on. Even if my daughter should decide to scream at me again and again, I would face her.

Determined I nodded my head and turned around to face my husband, who started to make some toast for breakfast.

"I can't pick up the children today. Could you do that?" he asked.

"Sure." I sighted softly. "I have a meeting with my publisher later. After that's finished I'll pick them up."

Edward handed my one of his toasts and smiled at me reassuringly. "Don't let it trouble you. She isn't slipping away. And now please smile again."

I had to try hard to meet his wish but managed in the end and went to the foyer to let the children know that I was taking them to school now.

"KIDS! DOWNSTAIRS! NOW!"

Edward did follow me and put his arms around me from behind. "I love you," he lovingly whispered into my ear while Dani, Aaron and Tara came down the stairs and went to the car.

I placed my hand on Edward's cheek. "I love you too."

"Fucking rain!" If there was something I never liked then it was rain and something I liked even less was driving in the rain. But thinking about it, rain wasn't that bad after all. It had been raining when I ran into Edward when I first met him. The rain let me seek refuge in the library and drove me into his arms. Well, it was more like rain and alcohol. It was a wonderful night even though it had a bitter aftertaste.

What would I do today if hadn't I married Edward and wasn't a mother of four children?

"God, what are you thinking about, woman!" I talked to myself and tried to focus back on the street in front of me.

Suddenly I was taken aback. I was sure to have seen Danielle walking on the street. Was it really her? No, that couldn't be her! My daughter had never before skipped school.

Shaking the thought away I resumed to focus on the way. I was probably thinking too much about Dani recently that I thought about her whenever I saw anybody faintly resembling her.

I turned on the radio to clear my head while I was driving to the school to pick up my children.

Pulling up at the school I had to notice that only two of my children were waiting for me. When they were both in the backseat I turned around.

"Where is Dani?" I couldn't get an answer from either Tara nor Aaron.

"Where is Dani?" I repeated my question in a more demanding tone.

I saw Rachel, one of Dani's close friends, walking out the building and I lowered the window. "Rachel!"

"Oh, Hi!" She was pulling her long blonde hair out off her face and bend down a bit to better talk to me.

"Do you know where Dani is?"

Rachel looked into the car before tuning around and searched the school grounds. "We had a free period," she informed me.

So I didn't fool myself when I thought I saw her! This is enough. I'm at the end of my tether! My fingers clinged to the steering wheel while I watched Rachel closely. "Thank you!"

I looked around some more, searching for my daughter before I raised back the window and took off home.

After spending the rest of the drive in silence I sprinted from the car directly into the house.

"DANI?"

Racing through the house, searching for my oldest daughter, I was inflamed with rage. Without knocking on the door first I jerked the door to Tony's room open. "WHERE IS DANI?"

My two oldest were a united front, telling each other everything, so when there was one person knowing where my daughter was it would be her brother.

Startled he turned my way. "No idea." He looked somewhat scared, as if he didn't tell the truth.

"You're up to something!" I was still livid and angrily made my way downstairs.

I was pacing the floor like a caged animal and waited for the water for my tea to start boiling. Where would Dani be? What did she and the others hide from us? Should I let Edward know?

I poured the boiling water into the teapot and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs. My pulse was frantic. I tried to breath evenly but it didn't help to bring my pulse down. This tension in my body let my muscles tremble.

It seemed I was sitting here forever when I heard a key in the door. Mere seconds later I was standing in the foyer when my daughter, looking like a drowned rat, entered.

My look mirrored my feelings and Dani looked scared. She wanted to step around me and head up the stairs when I pulled at her arm. I actually was waiting for one of her screamed "I HATE YOU"s.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I'M FED UP WITH YOUR BEHAVIOR! I TOLERATED IT FOR TOO LONG ALREADY! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU SCREAM AT ME EVERY DAY ANY LONGER! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU WALK ALL OVER ME ANY LONGER!"

I pulled Danielle to the kitchen on her arm and pressed her down in one of the chairs. I didn't want to scream at her but it was too late to change that now. I was mad at my daughter and let her know.

"So? Where have you been?" I looked at her in a requesting way, demanding an answer to my question but Dani remained quiet. Her body was trembling from the soaked clothed sticking to her body.

"I'm cold!" my daughter whispered into the silence without looking at me.

"Of cause you are cold, your clothes are soaked. Tell me where you've been and you can go change." I pressed my lips together that forcefully that they began to tremble. Again, I didn't get an answer out of my daughter.

"Okay, I can wait. I'm not cold." I had to be strong now and showing pity would ruin my chance to seriously talk to her now.

Danielle hadn't looked me in the eyes once. First tears were silently rolling down her cheeks but she soon couldn't control her sobbing any longer. She sounded like a little child.

"OH, please!" I couldn't believe it.

"Your act may work with your father but I'm not impressed by it. You fucked up, now stand by it. And please explain to me what I did do to you!"

Again a nearly unbearable long time of silence followed but slowly Dani calmed down and her sobs grew quieter, her tears drying up.

"I'm pregnant."

Her voice was quiet and there was no emotion in it, it could have been mistaken for a draft but I did understand her clearly. I choked on my tea and had a heavy coughing fit.

"WHAT?" I asked her with a raspy voice between two coughs.

"I am pregnant." Dani's voice was louder and determined when she looked at me. But as soon as she saw the horror in my brown eyes she looked down again.

I was overwhelmed by my feelings. How? How do you react to something like that? I closed my eyes with the hope that this was all just a bad joke but reality caught up with my thoughts. "I understood that. I mean when? Who's the father?" I could feel my daughter's desperation but I wasn't able to act appropriately. I was shocked and felt weak and kicked in the gut.

"Jake."

"Jasper's Jake?" Danielle nodded before she was overcome with another sobbing fit.

"I'm so sorry, mom. I … I … I … don't know why I did it … I … it just happened … and now …" She lifted her head.

My eyes were opened wide but the look of horror wasn't on my face any longer. I didn't feel anything at the moment. My hands which were clenched to fists moments ago were now laying flat on the table. I had difficulties comprehending what Danielle had just told me. I was disappointed that she was careless with her sex life and sad that she didn't feel she could come and talk to me.

What could I possibly do?

The slamming of the front door and my husband's followed shouting "BABE? I'M HOME. I BROUGHT JASPER ALONG!" let me get back from my thoughts.

Danielle flinched at the voice of her father and pleadingly looked at me.

I felt like I was drunk. Walking in the direction of my daughter I was staggering. Wrapping my arms around her head and pressing it to my chest.

"We're going to work it out. I love you! I love you! I love you! No matter what is going to happen! Your father loves you too! And now please go upstairs and get in some dry clothes." With a hushed voice I talked at my daughter to calm her down again because she had started to silently cry once more.

I stayed seated and watched Danielle walk out of the kitchen and into the foyer to go upstairs. I had to gather my thoughts before I could face Edward and Jasper.

Standing up I walked to the foyer where the two of them were still standing, still feeling wiped out. Edward seemed distressed and Jasper's look was puzzled.

"What happened?" Edward took a step in my direction, he sounded worried.

Jasper came to stand beside Edward, looking exactly as worried as my husband, and I could faintly hear a whispered "What's going on?".

I still wasn't in complete control of myself and everything around me seemed far away. Only my thoughts beating in my head, like at a rock concert.

My daughter, my baby was pregnant? But she was only a child herself. My little princess wasn't even old enough to vote. How could this happen? Why didn't anybody notice before? Was Tara right and I didn't know my children at all? Who was responsible that it came so far? Too many questions I couldn't answer for myself. Once again anger was my primary emotion and got out of hand as my body began to tremble.

When my thoughts thinned out and I came back to reality I was looking at both men, who hadn't averted their gazes.

I did loose the fight against my anger once again. I tried, like I always did but it seemed to overwhelm me. My control seemed to be minimal and when I'd be under stress it was even less so that a thought alone was enough to make me angry.

I turned to Jasper who was looking at me, taken aback. My gaze reflecting my inner turmoil.

"Everything okay?" Jasper seemed a bit scared of me.

I closed my eyes frustratedly. I couldn't deal with this question right now. Nothing was okay and his son was the reason why my family was falling apart at the moment. How could he stand here, not even having an idea about what his son did.

I opened my eyed again and glared at Jasper.

"NOTHING'S OKAY!" Both men cringed at my words.

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S WRONG? WHY DON'T YOU CALL YOUR SON AND ASK HIM WHY HE IMPREGNATED MY 16 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER?"

I took a lot of me to not completely loose my temper and beating the shit out of Jasper.

I knew he was as much to blame as Edward or me for this situation but I had to find an outlet for my anger. I could have took my anger out on Edward as well but I needed him at that moment. So while still crying I fled into his arms and waited for him to hug me and make everything better.

But Edward stood like a statue and didn't move one bit. He seemed as shocked as I was the only thing that was different were the tears that were running down my cheeks. Jasper, too, stood stock-still, not able to react.

Reluctantly I could feel Edward's arms surrounding my body, pressing it to his chest and pulling me in to the family room. Sitting us both down on the couch he started to pull at his hair, something he only did when he was extremely stressed. Tears were still streaming down my cheeks when Edward stood up again and went to the foyer.

I could hear Jasper talking to him. "Jake's taking the first flight he can get. He'll be here tomorrow morning at the latest. Alice is on her way and now please let us calmly consider what to do and how to proceed," he sounded composed and collected, something I definitely wasn't and as it seemed Edward wasn't either. "Getting upset won't help now and wouldn't change things either."

"DANIELLE!" I cringed at the loud voice of my husband.

It was deadly silent for a few seconds before I could hear a door being opened upstairs and the shuffling of feet coming down the stairs.

When my daughter entered the room, closely followed by her father and Jasper, she was white as a sheet and her big brown eyes were red from crying.

She sat down next to me. Dani couldn't look either man in the eyes and had her gaze averted to her lap.

I got over my first shock and was now silently waiting for my husband to explode.

He stood in front of us, nervously tearing at his hair. He took a few deep breaths before he started.

"Why? Please tell me why! You are an intelligent girl, I mean … You're going to ruin your future with something like that. A child is not toy that you can put away if you don't like it any more. A child means responsibility. Sex means responsibility, didn't you know that?"

Thick tears rolled down Dani's cheek once again and I felt the urge to hug her better.

I had to smile then, for once I was the good parent, the one consoling my child and Edward was the bad one. I threw a look his way, silently telling him that he said enough but not revealing why I was smiling.

"Are you one hundred percent sure you are pregnant? Have you seen a doctor?" I asked her while holding her face in my hands so that I could look her in the eyes.

Dani was gulping a few times before she told us exactly what happened.

"I went last week to get my blood sampled and today he told me I was pregnant. Before he could say or do anything else I ran out of his practice. His words buzzing in my head loudly, it was like hell."

"To which doctor did you go?"

"Dr. Genardy, I don't know anyone else," Dani answered me quietly.

"Good, then we are going to go there now and let him check you up."

I found my control again and tried to think and act as to the point as possible. Determinedly I stood up and pulled my daughter off the couch.

Dr. Genardy was also my gynecologist and I trusted the man with my whole heart. He would be able to give us some good advice. I still had to schedule a consultation about a possible HRT because I sometimes found myself a pain in the neck as I was apparently coming to my climacteric period. But this wasn't about me, it was about my daughter.

"You two can debate how we are going to cope with this situation," I said to my husband and brother-in-law, stunning them with my newly found initiative.

I stood up and had to push my daughter to the car because she was as shocked as her father and uncle about my zest of action.

Half an hour later I entered Dr. Genardy's practice, followed by my daughter, and made my way to the counter.

"Hello, my name is Cullen. My daughter was here this afternoon and she still has to be … Dr. Genardy." I turned away from the secretary when I saw the doctor approaching.

"Mrs. Cullen! Danielle! Good day."

Good … he could talk. I could feel my daughter trebling next to me so I squeezed her shoulder in a reassuring way, silently telling her that everything would turn out okay.

"Dr. Genardy, my daughter was with you today but she … well …"

I looked around the packed waiting room. Nosy people were sitting everywhere and I didn't want all of them to know what was going on in the family of the renowned Dr. Cullen.

"Could we go to you office?" Dr. Genardy nodded in agreement and walked us to his office.

"It's good you came. I would have had called you otherwise."

He told us to take a seat in front of his old mahogany desk before he took a seat himself. He rummaged through the files scattered on his desk before he addressed us.

"I made a little mistake today. We have a lot of patients at the moment, I'm dreadfully sorry. Danielle, you are not pregnant. I hope this propitiates you. I told you a wrong outcome."

I turned to my daughter and could see her eyes pop out, relief written all over her. She sighed at the same time as I did. I was relieved too, glad not to become a grandmother at my age. I just wanted to go and give the good news to the rest of my family.

"Hadn't you dashed out the practice like you did, I could have noticed the little mishap but you were suddenly gone ..."

This information took a load off my mind and I could feel my muscles slowly relax.

"Now, I wanted to talk to you too Mrs. Cullen."

"With me?" Puzzled I looked up at him. "What do you need to talk about?"

"You were here two weeks ago to get you estrogen level measured and wanted to get informed about a possible Hormone Replacement Therapy."

"Yes, well. That can wait."

I didn't think it was really important to talk about my minor problems but wanted to go home to the men who sure were like cats on a hot tin roof and anticipating news. I was in the motion of standing up, grabbing my purse and wanting to leave when I was interrupted by the doctor.

"I don't think so, Mrs. Cullen. You are the pregnant one."

What? Was he serious?

In slow motion I sat back on the chair. My mouth hanging open as I watched the doctor incredulously. I was sure to be white as a sheet at that moment. I couldn't think. And it took a few moments to regain the ability to form clear thoughts.

"Do you think this is funny? Because I don't think so." I barked at Dr. Genardy suddenly so that Dani cringed in the chair next to me. She had held her breath and stared at me the whole time.

"It is not important whether I think something is funny or not, it's just the simple truth. Let me ask you something. Did you experience cumulative mood swings lately?"

"Yes, that's why I was here! That's the climacteric period!" I was shaking my head disbelievingly.

"Have you missed your menstrual period? Are your breast sore?" I had to nod in agreement to all of his points. "Mrs. Cullen, you are pregnant! Let me perform a sonogram to ..."

"I am 45 years old! I can't get any more children! I already have four of them!"

"Please let me do a sonogram, maybe then you'll believe me."

I still couldn't believe what the doctor told me and the sonogram confirmed. I would be a mother again, at 45.

Dani and I were sitting in the car again after the appointment. She was peering at me from the passenger seat. With closed eyes I massaged my temples.

"Are you okay, mom?"

Sighing I opened my eyes and looked at my daughter. Tenderly brushing a strand of her auburn locks behind her ear and tried to smile. I was endlessly happy that my daughter wasn't pregnant, but did it have to be me? Our family-planning was finalized long ago. Everything was confusing, so much that I couldn't decide whether to be happy and excited or loose it. I did need time to ponder about everything.

"Can you promise me something?" I asked my daughter who promptly nodded. "Don't say anything to your father or siblings, better all of the family. For now! Let me calmly talk to your dad first, okay."

"All right," she promised with a worried look in her eyes.

I concentrated my sight on the street and started the car.

"Mom?" I turned my gaze back at my daughter. "I don't hate you," she told me with a quiet voice and glanced at her lap shyly.

"I know," I took Dani's hands in my own and looked at her for some time. "We both were obnoxious lately, right?"

Dani nodded and had to smile. "I love you, mom."

"I love you, too, no matter what happens."

We remained in this moment of affection a bit longer, something we didn't share for quite some time now, before we made our way home in silence.

Once back home and entering the foyer we were met by a frantic looking Edward.

"Please get your siblings down," I addressed Dani who sprinted up the stairs, probably glad to escape her father.

"And? What did the doctor say?" Impatience reflecting in his voice as well as in his posture.

"She's not pregnant," I told him in passing as I made my way to the family room where Alice and Jasper were sitting, Edward following me.

"Hey Alice!" I hugged her tightly, trying to find some relief in the situation. I was still agitated about everything.

"Dr. Genardy gave the all-clear. She's not pregnant."

I stood there feeling lost while my friends were looking at me. Even when Edward entered the room and stood at the door frame he seemed to feel that something wasn't right.

"Are you okay?" Alice stood up from the couch and came my way but I was still looking at my feet.

Breathing deeply I lifted my head. "Yes, I'm okay. Just relieved. Hmm … Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure." Jasper eyed me skeptically. I knew I wasn't a good liar and Jasper seemed to always know when I wasn't telling the truth.

"I'm really glad that you are here but I have to talk with my children about something and would appreciate if you could go." It wasn't easy to dismiss my friends in such a way. I would much prefer to have a nice evening with them and my husband but there were some serious things I had to put straight with my children.

Edward seemed confused that I'd suddenly kick out our friends.

I said my goodbyes to them and promised Alice to call her as soon as everything was settled with my family. Edward accompanied them to the door before he came back with our children in tow. They all looked questioningly at me. Except of Dani, who knew exactly what was going on.

As I saw them approaching in silence I sprang up the couch.

"Please take a seat for a moment, I have to tell you something," I addressed all four of them who promptly let themselves fall on the couch. Edward, still confused, followed suit and took a seat in the armchair. He seemed to anticipate what was coming next.

I looked at all my children closely. They were all lovely individuals, even though they weren't free of flaws and each of them had their own rough edges. And there was another one on the way. One hopefully being healthy. Dr. Genardy told me in unequivocal terms that this would be a high risk pregnancy at my age. I loved all my children and I would love any other one, but what if something would go wrong? What if it would be a disabled child? Even when it would be a healthy child it would still hit puberty one day. Would I be strong enough to go through with this all over again?

I had to gulp before I squared my shoulders and looked at my kids.

"Okay, for all of us the last few days have been … well, let's say tiring. A lot happened which has us all irritated and I'm the worst. Therefore I want to get some things clear." I exhaled to get the right tone for my message. A tone of respect, which wouldn't allow protest.

"In this house I'm the boss!" Edwards raised his brow at that, which left me clearing my throat. "And sometimes you father is too, but first and foremost for you and you," I pointed first at Dani and then at Tara. "This means, that you won't wrap your father around your little finger and play us off against each other. You are all underage and as long as that is the case you are going to do what I say."

All of my children were sitting on the couch like stone, listening carefully to what I had to say.

"No one of you is getting drunk any more or go to some parties for which you need a fake ID." My gaze stopped at my two oldest before it met Tara's eyes. "No more extreme demonstrations. I don't want to read about you in the newspaper because you freed some laboratory animals or did something similar. Are we clear?" Tara nodded in understanding and I turned to my youngest son. I looked at him for quite some time before I started to talk again. "I have no idea what you do but I hardly think you are the only innocent here. So no matter what you do, quit it!"

Nodding in contentment I let my words sink in with my children. Edward was still sitting in his armchair with a disbelieving expression on his face.

I said everything that I wanted to say and could now focus on my problems.

My children stood up, wanting to flee from the family room but I interrupted them before they even made it to the door.

"Another thing!" I turned around to face the children again. "The only persons having sex in this house, no the only persons having sex generally, are me and your father. Understood?" Aaron cringed and Dani had an amused expression on her lips before all four of them disappeared upstairs.

"Now to you," I faced Edward who was still sitting in his armchair, expectantly looking at me.

"Excuse me, what's with me?" I watched him some time not uttering a word before I extended my hand.

"Let's go for a walk."

Without asking, Edward took my hand and followed me out.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment and I'll send you a preview of the next chapter!

Did you think something like that would happen? How do you think Edward will react?

Just one more day. So, stay tuned.


	6. Saturday Morning

_Disclaimer: _Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I only let her characters grow up and add some children in the bunch.

_Summary_: What do you do when you no longer have your children under control? Join Bella, Edward and their four teenaged children for one intense week of ups and downs. AllHuman story.

_A/N_: I want to thank everybody who favorited my story or put it on alert or/and reviewd it. It's really nice to see some kind of feedback.  
But now, enough of my rambling, enjoy reading!

* * *

I nearly ran out to the streets to the next bus stop. It had been some time since I last drove the bus but as I didn't have my car keys with me it had to do. For some reason I got this new ORCA card last year but never used it before.

Stepping on the bus we drove downtown. I desperately wanted to go to my favorite cafe. Edward was quietly sitting next to me looking somewhat perplexed.

Once off the bus my destination was my favorite cafe new Qwest Field where we were sitting for some hours now. In the past were hung out at this cafe constantly. Reminiscing about old times I thought back to all the great memories I had of this place, telling Edward about them. He listened without interrupting me once, just nodding or 'hmm'ing from time to time to indicate that he was listening.

He checked his watch and let me know that it was already past midnight.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, his soft voice interrupting my monologue. He glanced at me with his eyes wide open and only then did I realize that I had been speaking non-stop since we came here. I silently nodded.

"Could you maybe let me know what got into you? You know, I can tell that something isn't right here. So, what's going on?"

I eyed him up critically for a moment as he did the same with me.

It was clear as day that something wasn't right. Of cause, my behavior must be quiet suspicious. How would he react when I tell him that we would get another child? I thought he already was overwhelmed with the four we had.

I slowly adjusted to the thought to hold another baby in my arms. Watch it grow up, with every ups and downs. I had to smile, how could I ever have questioned having another child. I loved my children, children in general and Edward was the same.

I looked into his questioning eyes and shrugged my shoulders.

"I am pregnant."

Edward's mouth was gaping open while he watched me with unbelieving eyes. His intense glance hanging on my face a bit longer, his mimic reflecting his inner turmoil, before a smile spread around his lips.

"Oh Bella! That is wonderful! I think. Is it wonderful?" He seemed overexcited but unsure about my reaction.

I was endlessly relieved that my husband was happy about the newest circumstances.

"Yes, it is wonderful," I finally agreed while Edward took my hands in his and looked at me lovingly. We stayed this way for some time, both lost in our own thoughts.

I felt young again. As young as I hadn't felt for some time now, remembering the early days with our children. It wasn't always easy and there often were times where we felt overwhelmed by everything, questioning our parenting skills more than once. We were lucky that we had Edward's parents living nearby as well as Charlie and Sue.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked him after some minutes.

"Nothing." He gestured with his hand in a dismissal way. "I just had to think back about Dani's birth."

We were visiting his parents in Forks, little Tony staying with Charlie and Sue, when I went into labor prematurely. Edward panicked and we only made it to the hospital because Esme kept her cool.

"It's good that you can laugh about it now."

We fell back into silence before it was interrupted by Edward, "And I'm going to be around more. I promise you that. I want to experience everything, first steps, first words, everything."

Aching I thought back to all Edward had missed due to his tight schedule while our children grew up. He didn't experience Tony taking his first steps, the twins' first words. He didn't experience neither first words nor first steps of Danielle which always gave him the feeling that he missed major milestones of her life. Maybe that was the reason why he always allowed her everything. Subconscious guilt which didn't allow him to forbid her anything.

I was glad that Edward wanted to change but at the same time I had to think back about what Dr. Genardy told me could go wrong.

"I'm glad to hear that. Maybe this is our chance to make everything right." A soulful sigh escaped my throat. "But there is one more thing."

Promptly the smile on Edward's face disappeared as he watched me intently.

"What?"

"Well, you see ..." How do gently break to your husband that there was a chance that your child could have special needs once it was born? Shouldn't he know about this already? He was a doctor himself after all, although this wasn't his area of expertise. I was sure that I would love our child no matter what and Edward was the same, nevertheless this was a thought which was constantly agonizing me.

"It's like that … well I'm not the youngest any more … and that could mean … well, it's common to ..." I couldn't find the right words although I normally didn't suffer from this problem.

The squeeze of Edward's hands increased. He probably already figured out what I wanted to say.

"This is going to be a high risk pregnancy at my age and the likelihood that the child will be disabled is higher than with younger women."

Edward's eyes thinned into slits before he quietly repeated, "High risk pregnancy." I nodded in silence, feeling as if I was to blame for that.

"And then you run all around the city, sitting here drinking coffee? Are you insane? You should be in bed!"

I was startled by his loud voice. "But that's ludicrous, Edward. I'm not pregnant differently than before. Also, I drank tea and what are you going to do? Chain me to the bed until the child is born?"

Had I really just asked that? Giving him ideas and feeding is already overbearing tendencies? I had to experience this side of him while pregnant with the twins.

I didn't wait for him to answer but stood up resigned, letting Edward pay the bill before he dragged me back home. Of cause we couldn't get the bus, no, my husband had to hail a cab and before I could blink I was sitting in the backseat of the car. What did I do to myself? Why didn't I just say nothing and rejoiced in the fact that Edward was happy, that we could be happy together?

During the drive back home we were both lost in our own thoughts. I was thinking about everything that had to be done for the baby. One of us would have to abdicate his or her study and we probably had to relocate one of the older kids rooms downstairs so that we could easily be there for the baby. But I was sure the we would accomplish this task easily.

Edward's arms rested around my body and he hugged me tight.

"You're going to crush me," I ranted and freed me from my husband's hug. He was so lost in thought that he didn't realize just how tight he hugged me.

"Sorry," he whispered and placed a damp kiss on my right cheek, a thoughtful smile on his lips.

"Edward, that's not necessary!" I overlooked the fact that he dragged me from the cafe and payed for the over-priced cab but too much was too much. He was carrying me from the cab to the front door, only letting me stand a few seconds in which he opened the door, and all the way upstairs to our bedroom, placing me on the bed and tugging me in. He didn't pay attention to the fact that I was still fully dressed.

"This is necessary," he told me smoothly and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"No, it's not!" I forcefully tossed back the duvet but Edward was on the spot instantly to tuck me back in. "You are going to need a lot of rest, so, please don't stress yourself out, just relax. I want you and the baby to feel good. So please lay back and rest."

"Oh, Sweetheart, please!" I was nearly becoming desperate because I knew my husband and knew he would stick to this game with a heroic calmness, like he always did. This was nice being pampered when I had a cold but this would last multiple month and that would go too far. I simply wasn't one of this people who liked being a couch potato. I needed action, always had, always would, and he knew that. He also knew that he would drive me mad with his behavior but that didn't seem to bother him.

No, on the contrary he was smiling at me, acknowledging me with fatherly glances. He was treating me like a little child. Making me his testing object and didn't pay any attention to what I had to say. Why did I marry him again? Even back then I hated his overbearing protectiveness. I thought back to the year when I fell off the ladder in the backyard and broke my leg. But he wasn't better either. After he was in a car crash he couldn't wait long enough to get back on his feet, ignoring any instructions the doctors gave him.

I could feel my temper boiling within me but tried to suppress it. I gave him credit for his euphoric drunkenness and snuggled back into the duvet. But all has not been said and done in this case.

"I'll be back in a moment. Please stay in bed," he pleaded with me before he left the room.

I took my chance and changed out of my street clothes into my nightshirt. Sometimes, Edward's decisions were so impulsive that he wouldn't think about negligibilities like he did now. While I changed I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. Turning around I examined my profile. Of cause there wasn't anything different yet, nevertheless I lovingly caressed my stomach with one hand, smoothing the fabric of my nightshirt. What would my bump look like this time?

I made a grimace as I thought back on who hard I had to work out to get back in shape. Each child had given me a nice souvenir at my stomach, hips and butt. One of the discomfort of pregnancy but by far not the worst. As if it had been yesterday that I was pregnant for the last time the swollen feet and the pain in the back crossed my mind. It was the worst with the twins. In the end I could hardly walk any more and always felt like I would be going to explode.

I shook my head, pushing theses thoughts away and making room for pleasant ones. I could hardly remember how it felt to feel your child move around for the first time. I could remember that I almost cried happy tears each time but much more present were the painful liver hooks and kidney kicks. This time I would definitely take more time for the good memories. I was older and more mature. I would enjoy this pregnancy and as Edward wouldn't leave my side why shouldn't I take advantage of this? What was to be said against a personal servant? But I wouldn't be chained to the bed, no, definitely not.

Smiling I crawled back into bed and pulled the duvet up to my ears.

I could hear muffled speaking from Amy's room but it wasn't loud enough to make out any words. It seemed that all my children and Edward were gathered in Amy's room.

Abruptly Edward came back stumping into our room.

"They smoke weed!" escaped this lips as he came to a stand in front of the bed. I already was on my journey to dreamland and only vaguely registered his words.

"Who?" I mumbled into my pillow without opening my eyes.

"Your children!" Edward informed me heatedly and irate which elicited a snicker from me.

"My children? Now they are MY children again? I won't have that, Edward! I won't have that laid on me!"

"They can only have it from you!" ranted Edward and even before the last syllable left his lips he looked like he regretted his words.

It wasn't a secret that I experimented with weed when I was younger but I had never smoked after I was pregnant with Tony.

Slowly I opened my left eye and stared at my husband. Trying to remain breathing calmly and evenly. I would not get riled up by his comment, I would beat him at his own game. Didn't he just minutes ago announce that he wanted to take care of his child? So why wait for the new one to be here? He could start right away with the children he already had. Besides he did put me into bed and this was exactly where I would stay. I would lay back in bed and relax.

"How should I forbid them something like that as I am, as you pointed out, such a bad influence? Besides I'm not allowed to get up," I informed him about my decision and rolled on my side so he couldn't see my smile.

Edward sure didn't think I would react that way. But in the end he turned and left the room to deal with our children, leaving the door to our room open.

I could hear Dani talking to her siblings in the next room. "Well, there is probably something I should tell you." She sounded amused by this entire situation.

"Don't be this mysterious, please," she was interrupted by her younger brother.

"Yeah well, … how to tell you the best way? Well, mom is pregnant!" Complete silence was followed by a "My ass!" from my oldest son.

"No, it's the truth. Your mother is pregnant and needs a lot of rest now," Edward told our children after he entered the room.

"A lot is going to change now. Your days as spoiled brats are numbered and you are going to behave appropriate to your age and learn to take responsibility. You are going to learn to bear the consequences for your actions and if you can't do that, I will get each of you to boarding school myself."

"Oh no, Edward. Really bad idea," I said to myself. I was sitting up in bed, eavesdropping on the orders Edward was handing out while my face was turning into a grimace more and more. Why was my husband that inept with his children? Didn't he know that he would only pique them to act out even more?

"You!" Edward continued to talk to Tony, Dani, Tara and Aaron in the next room. "I want you to clean this mess, tonight. I don't care how you are going to do that but I want it to look clean tomorrow morning. I won't tolerate that you handle my property like that. Do you understand me?"

It was clear that he was talking to Tara now. Her room, along with the boys' rooms always looked like chaos and Tony and Aaron were lucky that they weren't in one of their rooms because then they would hear the exact same thing from their father.

"Good. Additionally, from now on you will take care of laundry. Which includes washing, drying and ironing."

After a little pause he continued to address his oldest son. "Tony, you will take care of groceries shopping from now on."

"But I wouldn't know what to buy!"

"Then you have to use your head for once! Or maybe you could coordinate with your sister, because you ,Danielle, are now responsible for making dinner EVERY day which we will have together EACH day from now on. I want you all downstairs sitting at the kitchen table at exactly six thirty unrequested and enjoy your sister's cooking."

"But I don't know how to cook," came the bored answer of our oldest daughter.

"She doesn't know how to cook" Edward repeated Dani's words. "And what would you have told you child, which you LUCKILY won't get? You are hungry baby? I'm really sorry. Mommy doesn't know how to cook. Mommy only knows how to polish her nails. Or what?"

With that comment Danielle left her sister's room and slammed the door shut to her bedroom.

"Well, well, so you are smoking weed. And I thought you had more brains than your siblings. But okay, I was fooled, you won't have time for that in the future because you will spruce this house up. You are going to mop, vacuum, clean the windows and everything else."

"But above all, everyone of you is going to anticipate you mother's every wish. Is that clear?"

There was no response coming from my children that I could hear. They were probably baffled by their fathers orders. Never before was Edward that hard on our sprouts.

"And think about boarding school if you plan on not playing by my rules,"Edward yelled for the last time before he left the room and went downstairs.

My husband passed on to upset his pubescent children and it would be my task to resolve this mess. I thought hard about how I would counteract the inevitable aftermath of Edward's actions and finally came to a conclusion.

I jumped off the bed and grabbed my purse, fishing for my cell. It took me a few seconds to come up with the right number before I pressed the call button.

Twenty minutes later the door bell rang. I knew who was at the door and made my way to the stairs, waiting at the top of the stairs and watching the interaction between my husband and his cousin's boyfriend. It was silent on the second floor, only sound of Tara cleaning her room could be heard.

Edward opened the door after the bell rang a second time and was taken aback by the sight before him.

"Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Daniel! You must be Edward. I'm your cousins boyfriend."

"Tanya?" Edward sounded disbelievingly.

"Do you have more cousins living here?" Daniel asked which was denied by my man with a shake of his head.

A short pause followed in which both men eyeballed each other.

"And what do you want here?"

"Your wife called me. She asked me to talk to your children and show them ways and prospects on how to cope with all the changes which they are undergoing at the moment. The way becoming an adult is not an easy one and children need help finding their way in a world filled with hormones."

"What?" Edward sounded puzzled, as if he couldn't believe one word the younger man in front of him was talking about. I took this opportunity and made my way down the stairs.

"It's okay baby. Hello Daniel." Both their heads turned in my direction and I was met with a kind-of-smile from Daniel and a scowl of Edward's face.

"You should be in bed!" he scolded me as he made his way towards me.

"Yeah, in a moment!" This time I wouldn't be dictated to go back to bed before I could solve the rift between my children and my husband.

I went to all the childrens' bedroom doors and told them to come outside. I knew they weren't in bed yet, after everything that had happened tonight.

When all four of them were assembled in the hall I addressed them, "I know your father acted wrong." All their evil stares were now directed towards Edward, who was standing next to me. He didn't seem to be pleased with what I was telling our children.

"I want you all to go downstairs and welcome Tanya's new boyfriend. He has a lot to tell you." I was met with questioning looks by my quartet. "Shoo!" They didn't seem to know what to do so they followed Tony's lead and went downstairs.

"What ..." I didn't let Edward finish his sentence but placed my arms around him, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

"Trust me with this," I whispered in his ear. "When this guy is done with the kids, they'll be refined. And now, let's go back to bed." I took Edward's hand, who was still taken aback by my actions, and dragged him to our bedroom.

"Why did you do that? Why did you stab me in the back like that?" he was boiling with rage.

"Sucks right?" I hissed back and stood with my hands at my hips. "But that's not what this is about!"

"Then what is this about?" He was looking at me requestingly.

"This is about the ghosts you conjured up. Your children are exactly like you, if you yell at them they dig their heels in. It's not like I never tried before!" with every word the volume of my voice grew.

"Still, that's not a reason for you to unmask me in front of them. Do unto others … and so forth … remember?"

"God, I'm sorry I back-stabbed you, but please see that you acted wrong here although you had the right intentions." I didn't how I could get across to Edward that our children simply were spoiled brats and didn't give a damn about what we had to say.

"You know what, save your apologies!" He shook his head and stumped down the stairs to his study. His study was his sanctuary whenever we were having a disagreement and it hosted a pull-out couch were he would now probably spent the rest of the night.

After Edward slammed the door shut I sat back on the bed and propped my head up with my hands. I really was sorry for back-stabbing Edward but I didn't feel like to vouch for his behavior. And that's what would have happened in the end. He would never see that his orders are put through. He never did, especially not with the girls.

Lost in thoughts I placed my hands on my abdomen. "Please do me a favor and be a boy," I whispered to my stomach before I went back to bed.

I couldn't find any sleep so I went looking for our old photo albums and browsed them. Only when the sun began to rise did I finally fall asleep.

When I woke up again, the first thing I saw was Edward sitting next to me in the bed, photo album in his lap. He was looking at the photos that documented the day when Aaron broke his leg for the first time. All out children seemed to be prone to breaking their bones. He was so absorbed by the photos that he didn't noticed that I was awake.

"Calmed down?" I whispered into the silence that was enveloping us.

"I really want to be there. Maybe we should coordinate more," he said after he thumbed through the album a bit more. Edward looked at me and smiled.

"I'm really, truly sorry," I tried to apologize again and it seemed that all was forgotten. Edward put away the album and tapped on the mattress right next to him. Granting him his wish I rolled over into his arms and nuzzled into his chest.

"Do you think we will carry it off this time?" I asked him while I petted his hands.

"Well, our children aren't failures," Edward assessed.

"I never said they were but they are endlessly spoiled." I could feel Edward's nose in my hair.

"Then we have to wean them." He was in the motion to kiss me when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I called out and the door was opened within seconds. All of our four children came into the room, lead by Tony who had a tray filled with breakfast in his hand.

"Can we come in?" he asked in such a polite way that I never would have guessed he was my son.

After Edward nodded, Tony put the tray down on one of the bedside tables. Now all four of them were standing at the end of the bed and sheepishly looking to the floor.

"Anything else?" I asked them while I was watching them closely.

"We … we wanted to apologize to both of you," Dani started finally, only tentatively looking up at us. "We are really sorry about what happened and are going to try to change."

"Yeah, right!" Tara interrupted her. "We're really going to change! But please, never ever leave us with this scarecrow ever again."

Aaron groaned. "Oh, pretty please!" he endorsed his sister.

Both Edward and I had to laugh at that. "I'm going to hold him off from you if you are going to do the tasked that your father appointed to you," I ordered. "Agreed?" I then asked them and waited until each of them nodded in agreement.

"Well then come here and let me hug you all!" I opened my arms in an inviting way and seconds later we were all lying in bed, cuddling. Just like we did when the children were younger.

* * *

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment!

This was the last real chapter. But I will still write a little epilouge. This will probably take a little bit longer. AI also planned on writing some outtakes because I don't really want to let this family go.


End file.
